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Nope
- Nope. A “key” is a word with two uses, remember? It’s a small, metal instrument we use to open or close a lock, and a “quay” is a manmade platform or dock that hugs the edge of the water.
grammarist.com/homophones/cay-quay-and-key/Cay vs. Key vs. Quay – Homophones, Pronunciation & Definition
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Why do the words “key,” “cay,” and “quay” all sound the same if they each have different meanings? What is up with that? Well, there’s a good reason, and it’s not just variant spelling. Each of those homophones has a different origin and just so happens to land on the same English pronunciation.
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Jan 23, 2021 · All use the spelling ‘key’. Quay is only ever a noun and refers to a landing place by a body of water where ships can load and unload cargo or passengers. Remembering every definition of ‘key’ might be difficult.
Aug 17, 2018 · Despite its spelling, cay (sometimes “caye”) is pronounced exactly the same way (“kee”). It usually refers to a small, low-elevation island that sits on the surface of a coral reef. The term is mostly commonly used in the Caribbean.
Apr 18, 2018 · “Key” is more common in Florida and “cay” in the Caribbean, and it’s likely that local customs and place names have kept the different spellings alive. As we’ll explain later, both of them are probably derived from “quay,” a word from French that means a wharf.
In middle English it was spelled 'key' or 'keye'. French influence saw the spelling morph over time, more closely resembling French's 'quai', but the old pronunciation appears to have persisted.
Aug 30, 2024 · The current spelling replaced the spelling key in the 1690s to emulate the spelling but (at least originally) not the pronunciation of the equivalent modern French quai.
A quay is a landing place built on the edge of a body of water, used primarily to load and unload items and people onto and from vessels. The plural is quays. It is only capitalized when it is part of a proper name. It is more commonly used outside of the United States, which prefers the term dock. The derivative quayage is the payment a ...
