Key vs. Legend: Know the Difference
By Shumaila Saeed || Updated on December 25, 2023
A key is a small guide to symbols on a map or diagram, while a legend is a longer, narrative explanation, often historical or mythological.
Key Differences
A key is an explanatory list of symbols used on a map, chart, or other visual representation, serving as a guide to understanding the represented data. On the other hand, a legend, in the context of maps, refers to a narrative or story associated with the map's subject, often explaining historical or mythical backgrounds.
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Nov 10, 2023
In terms of function, the key is essential for interpreting the specific symbols or colors on a map or diagram, providing a straightforward, concise explanation. Conversely, a legend often delves into descriptive narratives, offering deeper insights or cultural context to the information presented.
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Nov 10, 2023
A key is typically a practical component, indispensable for accurately comprehending technical or complex visual information. Legends, however, offer a more enriched experience, adding layers of meaning or folklore to the visual data.
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The utility of a key lies in its ability to simplify and clarify, making data accessible and understandable. In contrast, legends may not always serve a practical purpose but enrich the viewer's understanding through storytelling or historical context.
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In summary, the key and legend serve different purposes: the key as a practical tool for comprehension, and the legend as a means of adding narrative depth or cultural significance to the visual information.
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Nov 10, 2023
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Comparison Chart
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Key and Legend Definitions
Legend
An extremely famous or notorious person.
Michael Jordan is a legend in the world of basketball.
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Key
A critical or central component.
The witness's testimony was the key piece of evidence in the trial.
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Legend
An inscription, especially on a coin or medal.
The coin bore a legend about the country's independence.
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Key
A notched and grooved, usually metal implement that is turned to open or close a lock.
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Oct 19, 2023
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Legend
A guide to symbols on a map or chart.
The legend helped them understand the different markings on the trail map.
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Key
A similar implement or an electronic device used for opening, winding, or starting something
The key of a wind-up alarm clock.
The new car's electronic key.
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Oct 19, 2023
Legend
An unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical.
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Key
A device, such as a wedge or pin, inserted to lock together mechanical or structural parts.
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Key
A determining factor in accomplishing or achieving something
One key to the store's success has been consistent customer service.
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Legend
One that inspires legends or achieves legendary fame
She is a legend in her own time.
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Key
Something that provides access to or understanding of something else
The key to the mystery was a drug store receipt.
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Key
A table, gloss, or cipher containing correspondences, as for decoding or interpreting something.
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Legend
An explanatory table or list of the symbols appearing on a map or chart.
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Key
(Computers) A number used by a cryptographic algorithm to encrypt or decrypt data.
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Legend
A story of unknown origin describing plausible but extraordinary past events.
The legend of Troy was discovered to have a historical basis.
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Legend
A plausible story set in the historical past, but whose historicity is uncertain.
The legend of Robin Hood
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Key
A button that is depressed to cause a corresponding character or function to be typed or executed by a typewriter or to be accepted as input by a computer.
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Legend
A story in which a kernel of truth is embellished to an unlikely degree.
The 1984 Rose Bowl prank has spawned many legends. Here's the real story.
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Key
(Music) A button or lever that is depressed with the finger to produce or modulate the sound of an instrument, such as a clarinet or piano.
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Legend
A fabricated backstory for a spy, with associated documents and records.
According to his legend, he once worked for the Red Cross, spreading humanitarian aid in Africa.
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Key
A tonal system consisting of seven tones in fixed relationship to a tonic, having a characteristic key signature and being the structural foundation of the bulk of Western music; tonality.
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Legend
A leading protagonist in a historical legend.
Achilles is a legend in Greek culture.
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Legend
A person with legend-like qualities, such as extraordinary accomplishment.
Michael Jordan stands as a legend in basketball.
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Key
A characteristic tone or level of intensity, as of a speech or sales campaign. Often used in combination
High-key.
Low-key.
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Legend
A key to the symbols and color codes on a map, chart, etc.
According to the legend on the map, that building is a school.
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Legend
An inscription, motto, or title, especially one surrounding the field in a medal or coin, or placed upon a heraldic shield or beneath an engraving or illustration.
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Key
An outline of the distinguishing characteristics of a group of organisms, used as a guide in taxonomic identification.
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Key
(Basketball) An area at each end of the court between the baseline and the foul line and including the jump-ball circle at the foul line
A jump shot from the top of the key.
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Key
The act of replacing portions of a video or photograph containing a preselected color with material from a separate image, as by chroma key.
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Key
A low offshore island or reef, especially in the Gulf of Mexico; a cay.
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Legend
That which is appointed to be read; especially, a chronicle or register of the lives of saints, formerly read at matins, and in the refectories of religious houses.
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Key
Of crucial importance; significant
Key decisions.
The key element of the thesis.
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Legend
Any wonderful story coming down from the past, but not verifiable by historical record; a myth; a fable.
And in this legend all that glorious deed
Read, whilst you arm you.
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Legend
An inscription, motto, or title, esp. one surrounding the field in a medal or coin, or placed upon an heraldic shield or beneath an engraving or illustration.
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Key
To be the determining or crucial factor in
A double that keyed a three-run rally in the fifth inning.
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Key
To bring into harmony; adjust or adapt
"achievement tests that are more clearly keyed to what students are held responsible for in high school" (New York Times).
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Legend
A traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.
The legend of King Arthur has fascinated people for centuries.
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Key
To cause to pay attention to
School officials who were keyed into the dietary needs of students.
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Legend
A caption on a map or diagram.
According to the legend on the map, the blue lines represent rivers.
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Key
To supply with a key of correspondences or with corresponding references
Keyed the pages in the edited book to illustrations in the manuscript.
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Key
To vandalize or mar by scratching with a key
Vandals keyed the cars left in the parking garage.
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Key
To pay close attention; focus
Improved service by keying on customer complaints.
Keyed into the main points of the lecture.
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Key
(Sports) To watch or cover an opposing player closely in an effort to limit the player's effectiveness. Used with on
"[She] still carries the burden of scoring ... even though opponents key on her throughout every game" (Josh Barr).
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Key
To replace portions of a video or photograph containing a preselected color with material from a separate image, as by chroma key.
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Key
An object designed to fit between two other objects (such as a shaft and a wheel) in a mechanism and maintain their relative orientation.
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Key
A crucial step or requirement.
The key to solving this problem is persistence.
The key to winning a game
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Key
A guide explaining the symbols or terminology of a map or chart; a legend.
The key says that A stands for the accounting department.
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Oct 19, 2023
Key
A guide to the correct answers of a worksheet or test.
Some students cheated by using the answer key.
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Oct 19, 2023
Key
(computing) One of several small, usually square buttons on a typewriter or computer keyboard, mostly corresponding to text characters.
Press the Escape key.
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Key
In musical instruments, one of the valve levers used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.
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Key
In instruments with a keyboard such as an organ or piano, one of the levers, or especially the exposed front end of it, which are depressed to cause a particular sound or note to be produced.
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Key
(music) A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition.
The key of B-flat major
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Key
In musical theory, the total melodic and harmonic relations, which exist between the tones of an ideal scale, major or minor; tonality.
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Key
In musical theory and notation, the tonality centering in a given tone, or the several tones taken collectively, of a given scale, major or minor.
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Key
In musical notation, a sign at the head of a staff indicating the musical key.
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Key
(advertising) A modification of an advertisement so as to target a particular group or demographic.
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Key
(botany) An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, such as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara.
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Key
(historical) A manual electrical switching device primarily used for the transmission of Morse code.
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Key
(cryptography) A piece of information (e.g., a password or passphrase) used to encode or decode a message or messages.
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Key
(databases) In a relational database, a field used as an index into another table (not necessarily unique).
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Key
(basketball) The free-throw lane together with the circle surrounding the free-throw line, the free-throw lane having formerly been narrower, giving the area the shape of a skeleton key hole.
He shoots from the top of the key.
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Key
(biology) A series of logically organized groups of discriminating information which aims to allow the user to correctly identify a taxon.
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Key
That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
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Key
(rail transport) A wooden support for a rail on the bullhead rail system.
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Key
The degree of roughness, or retention ability of a surface to have applied a liquid such as paint, or glue.
The door panel should be sanded down carefully to provide a good key for the new paint.
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Key
(print and film) The black ink layer, especially in relation to the three color layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow. See also CMYK.
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Key
Indispensable, supremely important.
He is the key player on his soccer team.
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Key
To fit (pieces of a mechanical assembly) with a key to maintain the orientation between them.
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Key
(computing) (more usually to key in) To enter (information) by typing on a keyboard or keypad.
Our instructor told us to key in our user IDs.
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Key
(colloquial) To vandalize (a car, etc.) by scratching with an implement such as a key.
He keyed the car that had taken his parking spot.
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Key
To modify (an advertisement) so as to target a particular group or demographic.
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Key
To prepare for plastering by adding the key that part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
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Key
An instrument by means of which the bolt of a lock is shot or drawn; usually, a removable metal instrument fitted to the mechanism of a particular lock and operated by turning in its place.
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Key
A small device which is inserted into a mechanism and turned like a key to fasten, adjust, or wind it; as, a watch key; a bed key; the winding key for a clock, etc.
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Key
One of a set of small movable parts on an instrument or machine which, by being depressed, serves as the means of operating it; the complete set of keys is usually called the keyboard; as, the keys of a piano, an organ, an accordion, a computer keyboard, or of a typewriter. The keys may operate parts of the instrument by a mechanical action, as on a piano, or by closing an electrical circuit, as on a computer keyboard. See also senses 12 and 13.
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Key
A position or condition which affords entrance, control, pr possession, etc.; as, the key of a line of defense; the key of a country; the key of a political situation.
Those who are accustomed to reason have got the true key of books.
Who keeps the keys of all the creeds.
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Key
That part of a mechanism which serves to lock up, make fast, or adjust to position.
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Key
A wedge to unite two or more pieces, or adjust their relative position; a cotter; a forelock.
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Key
An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara; - called also key fruit.
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Key
A family of tones whose regular members are called diatonic tones, and named key tone (or tonic) or one (or eight), mediant or three, dominant or five, subdominant or four, submediant or six, supertonic or two, and subtonic or seven. Chromatic tones are temporary members of a key, under such names as " sharp four," "flat seven," etc. Scales and tunes of every variety are made from the tones of a key.
Both warbling of one song, both in one key.
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Key
Fig: The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
You fall at once into a lower key.
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Key
A metallic lever by which the circuit of the sending or transmitting part of a station equipment may be easily and rapidly opened and closed; as, a telegraph key.
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Key
Any device for closing or opening an electric circuit, especially as part of a keyboard, as that used at a computer terminal or teletype terminal.
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Key
A simplified version or analysis which accompanies something as a clue to its explanation, a book or table containing the solutions to problems, ciphers, allegories, or the like;
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Key
A word or other combination of symbols which serves as an index identifying and pointing to a particular record, file, or location which can be retrieved and displayed by a computer program; as, a database using multi-word keys. When the key is a word, it is also called a keyword.
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Key
To enter (text, data) using keys, especially those on a keyboard; to keyboard; as, to key the data in by hand.
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Key
To adjust so as to be maximally effective in a particular situation; - of actions, plans, or speech; as, to key one's campaign speech to each local audience.
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Oct 19, 2023
Key
Essential; most important; as, the key fact in the inquiry; the president was the key player inthe negotiations.
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Key
Metal device shaped in such a way that when it is inserted into the appropriate lock the lock's mechanism can be rotated
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Key
Something crucial for explaining;
The key to development is economic integration
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Key
Any of 24 major or minor diatonic scales that provide the tonal framework for a piece of music
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Key
A winged often one-seed indehiscent fruit as of the ash or elm or maple
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Key
United States lawyer and poet who wrote a poem after witnessing the British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812; the poem was later set to music and entitled `The Star-Spangled Banner' (1779-1843)
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Key
(basketball) a space (including the foul line) in front of the basket at each end of a basketball court; usually painted a different color from the rest of the court;
He hit a jump shot from the top of the key
He dominates play in the paint
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Key
A list of answers to a test;
Some students had stolen the key to the final exam
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Key
A generic term for any device whose possession entitles the holder to a means of access;
A safe-deposit box usually requires two keys to open it
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Key
Mechanical device used to wind another device that is driven by a spring (as a clock)
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Key
Provide with a key;
We were keyed after the locks were changed in the building
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Key
Vandalize a car by scratching the sides with a key;
His new Mercedes was keyed last night in the parking lot
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Key
Harmonize with or adjust to;
Key one's actions to the voters' prevailing attitude
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Key
Serving as an essential component;
A cardinal rule
The central cause of the problem
An example that was fundamental to the argument
Computers are fundamental to modern industrial structure
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Key
A crucial element or solution.
Patience is the key to success in this project.
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Key
A button on a keyboard or musical instrument.
He pressed the key to enter his password.
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Key
A tone or pitch of a musical piece.
The song was written in the key of C major.
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Repeatedly Asked Queries
What is a key in a map?
A guide to symbols and colors on the map for interpretation.
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Is a legend always based on true events?
Not necessarily; it often includes mythical elements.
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What does 'key' mean in cryptography?
A piece of information used for deciphering or encrypting data.
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Can legends be factual?
They may contain factual elements but often include fiction.
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What is a musical key?
A group of pitches or scale that forms the basis of a music composition.
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What is a key in biology?
A guide used for identifying species or elements.
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What is a key factor?
A crucial element or aspect that influences an outcome.
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What does 'key player' mean?
A person of significant importance or influence in a context.
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What does a legend represent in storytelling?
A traditional, often mythical or historical narrative.
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Are legends considered a reliable historical source?
Not typically, due to their blend of fact and fiction.
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Do legends change over time?
Yes, they often evolve with cultural and societal changes.
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How does a legend differ from a myth?
Legends often have more historical basis than myths.
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Do legends have educational value?
Yes, they can convey moral lessons and cultural heritage.
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Are legends unique to specific cultures?
Yes, often reflecting the history and beliefs of a culture.
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Is a key always physical?
No, it can be a concept, idea, or piece of information.
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Can a key be a symbol in literature?
Yes, representing an idea or theme central to the story.
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What does 'key to success' mean?
An essential factor or condition needed for achieving success.
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Nov 10, 2023
Can a legend be a map feature?
Yes, referring to the explanatory table of symbols on a map.
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Can a legend be a person?
Yes, referring to someone exceptionally famous or influential.
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Nov 10, 2023
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About Author
Written by
Shumaila SaeedShumaila Saeed, an expert content creator with 6 years of experience, specializes in distilling complex topics into easily digestible comparisons, shining a light on the nuances that both inform and educate readers with clarity and accuracy.
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