clave

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /kleɪv/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪv

clave

1. (archaic) simple past and past participle of cleave
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 22:3:

     And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 1:14:

     And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.

   • 1868, Thomas Malory, chapter 11, in Le Morte D'Arthur:

     Sir Launcelot put his shield afore him, and put the stroke away of the one giant, and with his sword he clave his head asunder.

   • 1917, H. P. Lovecraft, The Tomb:

     Suddenly a peal of thunder, resonant even above the din of the swinish revelry, clave the very roof and laid a hush of feat upon the boisterous company.

From Spanish clave, from Latin clāvis (“key”). Doublet of clavis and clef.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklɑːveɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːveɪ

clave (plural claves)

1. singular of claves

clave (plural claves)

1. (music) A characteristic pattern of beats, especially the 3-2 son clave.

• Clave (rhythm) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Clipping of autoclave.

clave (plural claves)

1. Ellipsis of autoclave.

clave (third-person singular simple present claves, present participle claving, simple past and past participle claved)

1. Ellipsis of autoclave.

• calve

clave

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of clavar

• IPA^(key): /ˈkla.ve/
• Rhymes: -ave
• Hyphenation: clà‧ve

clave f

1. plural of clava

• calve

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkɫaː.wɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈklaː.ve]

clāve

1. ablative singular of clāvis

clāve

1. vocative singular of clāvus

Learned borrowing from Latin clāvem.^[1][2] Doublet of chave.

• Rhymes: -avi, -avɨ
• Hyphenation: cla‧ve

clave f (plural claves)

1. (music) clef (symbol)
2. juggling club

• IPA^(key): /ˈklabe/ [ˈkla.β̞e]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -abe
• Syllabification: cla‧ve

Borrowed from Latin clāvis (“key”). Compare the inherited doublet llave.

clave f (plural claves)

1. (figurative) key (to a problem or puzzle)
   • 2019 April 2, Ricardo Baixeras, “'Mañana tendremos otros nombres' : las grietas del amor”, in El Periódico‎^[1]:

     Un texto enormemente sugerente sobre los tiempos actuales y venideros, sobre lo que nos configura, sobre los nuevos roles de la masculinidad y la feminidad y sobre la velocidad como clave de lectura de las relaciones, una velocidad que como quería Ralph Waldo Emerson, cuando uno patina sobre hielo fino, es la salvación.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. password

   Synonym: contraseña

   clave WiFi ― WiFi password

3. code
4. (music) clef
5. (music) clave

• → English: clave

clave m or f (masculine and feminine plural clave or claves)

1. key (important)

   Synonym: importante

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

clave

1. inflection of clavar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “clave”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024