passkey

English

Etymology

From pass +‎ key.

Pronunciation

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

passkey (plural passkeys)

2. A key, especially in a hotel, that allows someone in authority to open any door.

   Synonyms: master key, (obsolete) passe-partout

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     With the universal pass-key of imagination we open the dingy door, pass down a dark passage and up a narrow stair.

   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 23:

     Jourdain stood by with a quiet sad smile, holding his passkey in his hand, and giving me time to take it all in.

4. A key for entering a house or other building.
   • 1917, Hearst's, volume 32, page 293:

     Now, Balmy, here's the passkey to that house. The windows are wired, but the front door isn't. Get inside that door as quietly as you can, and find out as much as you can.

6. (computing, especially since the 2020s) A cryptographic key that is tied to specific devices or cloud accounts and is meant to be used instead of a password.

   Coordinate terms: keyphrase, passcode, password, passphrase

   • 2023, FIDO Alliance, “Passkeys: accelerating the availability of simpler, stronger passwordless sign-ins”, in FIDO Alliance‎^[1], retrieved 2023-05-03:

     Based on FIDO standards, passkeys are a replacement for passwords that provide faster, easier, and more secure sign-ins to websites and apps across a user's devices. Unlike passwords, passkeys are always strong and phishing-resistant.​ Passkeys simplify account registration for apps and websites, are easy to use, work across most of a user's devices, and even work on other devices within physical proximity.​ Why passkeys? Passwords are a problem.

   • 2023, Apple Inc., iPhone User Guide‎^[2], retrieved 2023-05-03, iOS 16:

     Sign in with passkeys on iPhone / Passkeys give you a simple and secure way to sign in without passwords by relying on Face ID (supported models) or Touch ID (supported models) to identify you when you sign in to supporting websites and apps. / Intro to passkeys / Based on industry standards for account authentication, passkeys are easier to use than passwords and far more secure. A passkey is a cryptographic entity that's not visible to you, and it's used in place of a password. A passkey consists of a key pair, which—compared to a password—profoundly improves security. One key is public, registered with the website or app you're using. The other key is private, held only by your devices.

   • 2023 May 3, Michael Kan, “Go passwordless: Google accounts now support passkey sign-ins”, in PCMag‎^[3], retrieved 2023-05-03:

     Google is starting to nudge users to try out passkeys, a replacement for traditional passwords that can stop phishing attacks and make sign-ins easier.

8. (computing, dated) Synonym of password.
   • 2007, Harold F Tipton, Micki Krause, Information Security Management Handbook:

     The router then generates a random numeric passkey and delivers it to the user […]

Translations

a key that opens any door

• Armenian: հիմնաբանալի (himnabanali)
• Bulgarian: шперц m (šperc)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• French: passe-partout (fr) m, passepartout (fr) m, passe (fr) m
• German: Generalschlüssel (de) m
• Greek: πασπαρτού (el) n (paspartoú)
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: калауз m (kalauz)
• Russian: отмы́чка (ru) f (otmýčka)

a key that opens the main or central door

• German: Hauptschlüssel (de) m

a keyword, a password

• German: Schlüssel (de) m, Schlüsselwort (de) n, Kennwort (de) n, Zugangsschlüssel m

See also

• (physical): skeleton key
• (virtual): passwordless