"dead key" meaning in English

See dead key in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: dead keys [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} dead key (plural dead keys)
  1. A special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard, typically used to attach a specific diacritic to another character. Translations (special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard): senpaŝa klavo (Esperanto), päällekkäisnäppäin (Finnish), tarkenäppäin (Finnish), touche morte [feminine] (French), Tottaste [feminine] (German), phím ảo (Vietnamese)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead keys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dead key (plural dead keys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Esperanto translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Vietnamese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Typing keyboards",
          "orig": "en:Typing keyboards",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard, typically used to attach a specific diacritic to another character."
      ],
      "id": "en-dead_key-en-noun-8a5Lj6gT",
      "links": [
        [
          "modifier key",
          "modifier key"
        ],
        [
          "typewriter",
          "typewriter"
        ],
        [
          "computer",
          "computer"
        ],
        [
          "keyboard",
          "keyboard"
        ],
        [
          "diacritic",
          "diacritic"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "lang_code": "eo",
          "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
          "word": "senpaŝa klavo"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
          "word": "päällekkäisnäppäin"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
          "word": "tarkenäppäin"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "touche morte"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Tottaste"
        },
        {
          "code": "vi",
          "lang": "Vietnamese",
          "lang_code": "vi",
          "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
          "word": "phím ảo"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead key"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead keys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dead key (plural dead keys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Esperanto translations",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Vietnamese translations",
        "en:Typing keyboards"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard, typically used to attach a specific diacritic to another character."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "modifier key",
          "modifier key"
        ],
        [
          "typewriter",
          "typewriter"
        ],
        [
          "computer",
          "computer"
        ],
        [
          "keyboard",
          "keyboard"
        ],
        [
          "diacritic",
          "diacritic"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "lang_code": "eo",
      "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
      "word": "senpaŝa klavo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
      "word": "päällekkäisnäppäin"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
      "word": "tarkenäppäin"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "touche morte"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Tottaste"
    },
    {
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "lang_code": "vi",
      "sense": "special modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard",
      "word": "phím ảo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead key"
}

Download raw JSONL data for dead key meaning in English (1.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (96027d6 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.