How to Use skeleton key in a Sentence

skeleton key

noun
  • The right setting acts as a skeleton key.
    — Kevin Sintumuang, Outside, 10 Mar. 2026
  • In his design, the postman would sound an alarm by means of a skeleton key.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 8 Aug. 2018
  • Your email is the skeleton key to your online identity.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 28 Aug. 2025
  • Single sign-on acts as a sort of skeleton key to all of your accounts across the internet.
    — Lily Hay Newman, WIRED, 4 June 2019
  • Music is a kind of skeleton key, opening countless doorways in the mind.
    — Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023
  • That’s what makes a skeleton key truly magical.
    — Gail Mitchell, Billboard, 30 Jan. 2026
  • Evans, a surefire Hall of Famer, is the skeleton key that can unlock the whole scheme.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 9 Mar. 2026
  • Stem cells can divide and renew themselves over a long period of time and are kind of like a skeleton key.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 1 Aug. 2024
  • Bill explained that on the sills over several of the doors, there sit different skeleton keys.
    — Lennie Omalza, The Courier-Journal, 24 Aug. 2023
  • That can turn a single $100 record into a valuable skeleton key for a buyer.
    — Robert McMillan, WSJ, 9 Dec. 2018
  • Art and music and film and dance and so many other pieces of work where people just put their blood and guts into it, those things have been skeleton keys for me.
    — Lily Moayeri, SPIN, 19 Aug. 2024
  • The peripheral Proust may persist as part of our search for a skeleton key to all the others—a way inside.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 3 May 2021
  • Marlowe’s supposed involvement in spying then becomes the skeleton key to his psyche.
    — Isaac Butler, The Atlantic, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Some people might have a favorite, go-to password, but that's essentially a skeleton key that opens up all private access points.
    — Chris Nicoli, Forbes, 20 Jan. 2022
  • This conversation, which takes place early in the novel, feels like a skeleton key to everything that happens after it.
    — Jenny Offill, The New York Review of Books, 3 Nov. 2020
  • Today, Brown carries the ring of skeleton keys that unlock the doors of Oakley Grove house as the owner.
    — Krista Stevens, Longreads, 4 Dec. 2024
  • Moss is The Invisible Man’s skeleton key, the means to opening its every door.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 28 Feb. 2020
  • Woven baskets, plates, and even odds and ends like skeleton keys and bottle openers make for eye-catching outdoor art that can withstand the elements.
    — Tessa Cooper, The Spruce, 25 Apr. 2026
  • Other secret-keepers will come calling with skeleton keys in hand, too, from Kerry to Marcia and far beyond.
    — Josh Wigler, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Apr. 2023
  • Check-in started with a calligraphy envelope reading my name and a vintage skeleton key to the Sarah Dutro suite.
    — Rafael Peña, Miami Herald, 6 June 2025
  • Emmanwori is the skeleton key that unlocks Macdonald’s defense.
    — Michael-Shawn Dugar, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2026
  • The skeleton key for the Cowboys’ offense is the development of left tackle Tyler Guyton, last year’s first-round draft pick.
    — Ted Nguyen, New York Times, 17 June 2025
  • But running on anti-China messaging also didn’t prove to be a skeleton key for winning Republicans over to the other side.
    — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 17 Nov. 2022
  • However, Porziņģis' size and long-range shooting ability are the skeleton key that makes Boston's 5-out offense so deadly.
    — Bryan Toporek, Forbes.com, 9 May 2025
  • Richardson moved into the starting lineup in early February and became the skeleton key of a team with very real Final Four dreams.
    — Brendan Quinn, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2025
  • As a reference point, the Bible is a skeleton key that unlocks hundreds of years of culture, from Shakespeare to Kehinde Wiley.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 1 Apr. 2018
  • First, Microsoft should not have had a single skeleton key that, when inevitably stolen, could be used to forge access to different customers’ private communications.
    — Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 27 July 2023
  • Other oddities and relics the designers say add to the vintage Halloween theme include skeleton keys, cracked teacups, magnifying glasses, and even hats that look like they've been left behind.
    — Maria Sabella, Better Homes & Gardens, 8 Sep. 2025
  • The pair have also found many functioning skeleton keys, milk bottles and caps from 1902 to 1940, and a large meat cleaver hanging in the basement ceiling rafters.
    — Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Back then, many conservatives treated the Epstein files as a skeleton key promising cataclysmic revelations about elite depravity and corruption.
    — Michelle Goldberg, Mercury News, 6 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'skeleton key.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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