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keyhole

American  
[kee-hohl] / ˈkiˌhoʊl /

noun

  1. a hole for inserting a key in a lock, especially one in the shape of a circle with a rectangle having a width smaller than the diameter of the circle projecting from the bottom.

  2. Also called key.  Basketball. the area at each end of the court that is bounded by two lines extending from the end line parallel to and equidistant from the sidelines and terminating in a circle around the foul line.

adjective

  1. extremely private or intimate, especially with reference to information gained as if by peeping through a keyhole.

  2. snooping and intrusive.

    a keyhole investigator.
keyhole British  
/ ˈkiːˌhəʊl /

noun

  1. an aperture in a door or a lock case through which a key may be passed to engage the lock mechanism

  2. any small aperture resembling a keyhole in shape or function

  3. a transient column of vapour or plasma formed during the welding or cutting of materials, using high energy beams, such as lasers

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of keyhole

First recorded in 1585–95; key 1 + hole

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Stoppard announced himself with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” an absurdist lark that views “Hamlet” from the keyhole perspective of two courtiers jockeying for position in the new regime.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 30, 2025

It will, according to Nick Card, involve "keyhole surgery" to open a small trench to investigate "this anomaly".

From BBC • Nov. 27, 2025

For writers in the 1960s, middle-class infidelity offered a keyhole to deeper social themes—“the relation of individual to collective decadence,” the critic Wilfrid Sheed wrote of Updike’s fiction.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

“Writing online in 2025 feels like performing keyhole surgery while people scream ‘ROBOT!

From Slate • Aug. 20, 2025

A toothpick, inserted into a standard keyhole and snapped off flush, is a marvelous thing.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.