keyboard

American  

[kee-bawrd] / ˈkiˌbɔrd /

noun

1. the row or set of keys on a piano, organ, or the like.

   I was playing piano before my feet could reach the pedals or my fingers could cover a chord on the keyboard.

2. a set of keys, usually arranged in tiers, for operating a typewriter, computer, cash register, or the like, or a digital representation of the same on a touchscreen used to type on a device such as a smartphone or tablet.

   I spilled coffee on my keyboard, and now the return key sticks so my documents are full of extra line breaks.

3. any of various musical instruments played by means of a pianolike keyboard, as a piano, electric piano, or organ.

   You basically need four people to start a rock band—someone on lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and keyboard.

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verb (used with or without object)

1. Also key in to enter (data) into a computer by means of a keyboard.

   If you can get changes keyboarded by Monday, we should still be able to make the project deadline.

2. to set (text) in type, using a machine that is operated by a keyboard.

keyboard British  

/ ˈkiːˌbɔːd /

noun

1. 1. a complete set of keys, usually hand-operated, as on a piano, organ, typewriter, or typesetting machine

   2. ( as modifier )

      a keyboard instrument

2. (often plural) a musical instrument, esp an electronic one, played by means of a keyboard

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verb

1. to set (a text, etc) in type, onto magnetic tape, or into some other medium, by using a keyboard machine

Other Word Forms

• keyboarder
  noun
• keyboardist
  noun
• rekeyboard
  verb

Etymology

Origin of keyboard

First recorded in 1810–20; key ¹ + board

Explanation

What do pianos and computers have in common? They both have keyboards! A computer keyboard has numbers and letters, but a piano keyboard has musical notes. The keyboard is the part that you press with your fingers. Besides the rockin’ keyboard of a synthesizer, piano, or organ, there is also the computer keyboard. This keyboard is used for typing, with the earliest examples being the keyboards on typewriters. Occasionally, the word keyboard is used as a verb, meaning "to type on keyboard." It’s also, literally, a board with little hooks to hang the other kind of keys on. The musical instrument meaning came first, around 1819.

Example Sentences

Keyboard nerds know: Mechanical keys are faster and more fun to type on.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 23, 2025

The Ford program sets up “In C” with Keyboard Study No. 2, a modular score written at the same time as “The Gift.”

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 6, 2025

Keyboard magazine summed up the overall reaction to the Ikutaro Kakehashi design, describing its hi-hats as sounding like “marching anteaters.”

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2023

Thus Mozart’s “Rondo in F Major” found a convivial next-door neighbor in the younger Bach’s “Rondo for Keyboard in D Minor.”

From Washington Post • Nov. 21, 2022

The twelve-note octave as we know it became a firm fixture of Western music after the publication in 1722 of J. S. Bach’s forty-eight preludes and fugues for the 'Well-Tempered Keyboard’.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Related Words

• console
• manual
• piano