Meanings
plural policy keyboards
- A range of potential policies from which options can be chosen.
These foreign policy goals are not seen as potential contradictions, but as different tunes that can be played on the foreign policy keyboard in any order.
2017, Mischa Hansel, Raphaëlle Khan, Mélissa Levaillant, Theorizing Indian Foreign Policy, page 621 more example
They are, in effect, a policy keyboard in which each policy has a primary rationale different from that of fostering technological innovations. Taxation does not serve primarily to encourage invention, for example, but to generate revenue […]
1974, Australian Institute of Political Science, Industrial Australia, 1975-2000: Preparing for Change, page 50
Origin
Apparently by analogy with the playing of notes on a musical keyboard.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
policy keyboard. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/policy%20keyboard
“policy keyboard.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/policy%20keyboard. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “policy keyboard,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/policy%20keyboard.
Source: policy keyboard on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.