eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for key

3 headwords match “key”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The 3 strongest follow; cæg ranks first.

  1. 1

    cæg

    score 24

    noun, feminine · strong ō-stem · 4 inflected forms

    key — key

    • opens the headword's definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular cǣġ
    genitive singular cǣġe
    dative singular cǣġe
    accusative singular cǣġe
    nominative plural cǣġa, cǣġe
    genitive plural cǣġa
  2. 2

    cægbora

    score 15

    noun, masculine · weak · 4 inflected forms

    key — key bearer

    • opens the headword's definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular cǣġbora
    genitive singular cǣġboran
    dative singular cǣġboran
    accusative singular cǣġboran
    nominative plural cǣġboran
    genitive plural cǣġborena
  3. 3

    hellecæge

    score 6

    noun, masculine

    key — the key to hell(?)

    • appears in the definition

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “key” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “key”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0