A public key is the publicly shared component of an asymmetric key pair used for encryption or signature verification.
In public-key cryptography, the public key can be shared widely while the private key is kept secret. Public keys are used to verify signatures and (in some schemes) encrypt data for the private-key holder.
A cryptographic key that may be widely published and is used to enable the operation of an asymmetric (public key) cryptographic algorithm.
The public part of an asymmetric key pair that is uniquely associated with an entity and that may be made public.