noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A usually plastic card which stores a digital signature that is used to operate an electronic access control lock.
2. 2
   In Roman keycard Blackwood, an ace of any suit or the king of trumps.
3. 3
   a plastic card that has a magnetically coded strip that is scanned in order to operate a mechanism wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

card keycard key

Example

More examples

"You need a keycard to open the door."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From key (“lock opener”) + card (“piece of plastic”).

Etymology 2

From key (“important”) + card (“playing card”).

Related phrases

keycard lock

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.