Keyring

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A keyring, attached to several keys, an automotive remote entry device, a keychain, and a caribiner.

A looped, metal keyring, with a plastic fob.

A keyring is a ring of material, usually metal or plastic, that holds keys and other small items, which are sometimes connected to keychains. Other types of material that keyrings are made of is leather, wood and rubber.

The most common form of key ring is a metal ring consisting of two complete loops. Either end of the loop can be pried open to allow a key to be inserted and slid along the spiral until it becomes wholly engaged onto the ring. Often the ring is adorned with a key fob making identification easy and possibly also identifying the purpose of the keys.

Other forms of rings may use a single loop of metal or plastic with a mechanism to open and securely close the loop.

In the cryptography sense, a keyring stores known encryption keys. For example, GNU Privacy Guard uses the concept of keyrings.

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