Python Keywords and Identifiers

Last Updated : 16 May, 2025

Every language contains words and a set of rules that would make a sentence meaningful. Similarly, in Python programming language, there are a set of predefined words, called Keywords which along with Identifiers will form meaningful sentences when used together. Python keywords cannot be used as the names of variables, functions, and classes.

In this article, we will learn about Python keywords and identifiers and how to use them to perform some tasks.

Keywords in Python

Python Keywords are some predefined and reserved words in Python that have special meanings. Keywords are used to define the syntax of the coding. The keyword cannot be used as an identifier, function, or variable name. All the keywords in Python are written in lowercase except True and False. There are 35 keywords in Python 3.11.

In Python, there is an inbuilt keyword module that provides an iskeyword() function that can be used to check whether a given string is a valid keyword or not. Furthermore, we can check the name of the keywords in Python by using the kwlist attribute of the keyword module.

Rules for Keywords in Python

Python keywords cannot be used as identifiers.
All the keywords in Python should be in lowercase except True and False.

List of Python Keywords

Keywords	Description
and	This is a logical operator which returns true if both the operands are true else returns false.
or	This is also a logical operator which returns true if anyone operand is true else returns false.
not	This is again a logical operator it returns True if the operand is false else returns false.
if	This is used to make a conditional statement.
elif	Elif is a condition statement used with an if statement. The elif statement is executed if the previous conditions were not true.
else	Else is used with if and elif conditional statements. The else block is executed if the given condition is not true.
for	This is used to create a loop.
while	This keyword is used to create a while loop.
break	This is used to terminate the loop.
as	This is used to create an alternative.
def	It helps us to define functions.
lambda	It is used to define the anonymous function.
pass	This is a null statement which means it will do nothing.
return	It will return a value and exit the function.
True	This is a boolean value.
False	This is also a boolean value.
try	It makes a try-except statement.
with	The with keyword is used to simplify exception handling.
assert	This function is used for debugging purposes. Usually used to check the correctness of code
class	It helps us to define a class.
continue	It continues to the next iteration of a loop
del	It deletes a reference to an object.
except	Used with exceptions, what to do when an exception occurs
finally	Finally is used with exceptions, a block of code that will be executed no matter if there is an exception or not.
from	It is used to import specific parts of any module.
global	This declares a global variable.
import	This is used to import a module.
in	It's used to check whether a value is present in a list, range, tuple, etc.
is	This is used to check if the two variables are equal or not.
none	This is a special constant used to denote a null value or avoid. It's important to remember, 0, any empty container(e.g empty list) do not compute to None
nonlocal	It's declared a non-local variable.
raise	This raises an exception.
yield	It ends a function and returns a generator.
async	It is used to create asynchronous coroutine.
await	It releases the flow of control back to the event loop.

The following code allows you to view the complete list of Python's keywords.

This code imports the "keyword" module in Python and then prints a list of all the keywords in Python using the "kwlist" attribute of the "keyword" module. The "kwlist" attribute is a list of strings, where each string represents a keyword in Python. By printing this list, we can see all the keywords that are reserved in Python and cannot be used as identifiers.

Python

# code import keyword print(keyword.kwlist)

Output

['False', 'None', 'True', 'and', 'as', 'assert', 'async', 'await', 'break', 'class', 'continue', 'def', 'del', 'elif', 'else', 'except', 'finally', 'for', 'from', 'global', 'if', 'import', 'in', 'is',...

Identifiers in Python

Identifier is a user-defined name given to a variable, function, class, module, etc. The identifier is a combination of character digits and an underscore. They are case-sensitive i.e., 'num' and 'Num' and 'NUM' are three different identifiers in python. It is a good programming practice to give meaningful names to identifiers to make the code understandable.

We can also use the Python string isidentifier() method to check whether a string is a valid identifier or not.

Rules for Naming Python Identifiers

It cannot be a reserved python keyword.
It should not contain white space.
It can be a combination of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, or underscore.
It should start with an alphabet character or an underscore ( _ ).
It should not contain any special character other than an underscore ( _ ).

Examples of Python Identifiers

Valid identifiers:
var1
_var1
_1_var
var_1
Invalid Identifiers
!var1
1var
1_var
var#1
var 1

Python Keywords and Identifiers Examples

Example 1: Example of and, or, not, True, False keywords.

Python

print("example of True, False, and, or, not keywords")  #  compare two operands using and operator print(True and True)  # compare two operands using or operator print(True or False)  # use of not operator print(not False)

Output

example of True, False, and, or, not keywords True True True

Example 2: Example of a break, continue keywords and identifier.

Python

# execute for loop for i in range(1, 11):          # print the value of i     print(i)          # check the value of i is less than 5     # if i lessthan 5 then continue loop     if i < 5:           continue              # if i greater than 5 then break loop     else:           break

Output

1 2 3 4 5

Example 3: example of for, in, if, elif, and else keywords.

Python

# run for loop for t in range(1, 5):   # print one of t ==1     if t == 1:         print('One')    # print two if t ==2     elif t == 2:         print('Two')     else:         print('else block execute')

Output

One Two else block execute else block execute

Example 4: Example of def, if, and else keywords.

Python

# define GFG() function using def keyword def GFG():     i=20     # check i is odd or not      # using if and else keyword     if(i % 2 == 0):         print("given number is even")     else:         print("given number is odd")          # call GFG() function     GFG()

Output

given number is even

Example 5: Example of try, except, raise.

Python

def fun(num):     try:         r = 1.0/num     except:         print('Exception raises')         return     return r  print(fun(10)) print(fun(0))

Output

0.1 Exception raises None

Example 6: Example of a lambda keyword.

Python

# define a anonymous using lambda keyword # this lambda function increment the value of b a = lambda b: b+1  # run a for loop  for i in range(1, 6):     print(a(i))

Output

2 3 4 5 6

Example 7: use of return keyword.

Python

# define a function def fun():   # declare a variable     a = 5     # return the value of a     return a # call fun method and store # it's return value in a variable   t = fun() # print the value of t print(t)

Output

Example 8: use of a del keyword.

Python

# create a list l = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']  # print list before using del keyword print(l)  del l[2]  # print list after using del keyword print(l)

Output

['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e'] ['a', 'b', 'd', 'e']

Example 9: use of global keyword.

Python

# declare a variable gvar = 10  # create a function def fun1():   # print the value of gvar     print(gvar)  # declare fun2() def fun2():   # declare global value gvar     global gvar     gvar = 100  # call fun1() fun1()  # call fun2() fun2()

Output

Example 10: example of yield keyword.

Python

def Generator(): for i in range(6): yield i+1 t = Generator() for i in t: print(i)

Output

1 2 3 4 5 6

Example 11: Use of assert keyword.

Python

def sumOfMoney(money):     assert len(money) != 0,"List is empty."     return sum(money)  money = [] print("sum of money:",sumOfMoney(money))

Output:

AssertionError: List is empty.

Example 12: Use of pass keyword

Python

class GFG: pass g = GFG

Example 13: Use of finally keyword

Python

def divide(a, b):     try:         c = a/b         print("Inside try block")     except:         print("Inside Exception block")     finally:         print("Inside finally block") divide(3,2) divide(3,0)

Output

Inside try block Inside finally block Inside Exception block Inside finally block

Example 14: Use of import keyword

Python

import math print("factorial of 5 is :", math.factorial(5))

Output

factorial of 5 is : 120

Example 15: Use of is keyword

Python

x = 10 y = 20 z = x print(x is z) print(x is y)

Output

True False

Example 16: Use of from keyword

Python

from math import gcd print("gcd of 345 and 675 is : ", gcd(345, 675))

Output

gcd of 345 and 675 is :  15

Example 17: Use of async and await keyword

Python

# code import asyncio  async def factorial(n):     if n == 0:         return 1     return n * await factorial(n - 1)  def main():     result = asyncio.run(factorial(5))     print(result)  if __name__ == "__main__":     main()

Output

The async and await keywords make it easy to write asynchronous code in Python. They allow you to write code that runs concurrently with other tasks, which can improve the performance of your programs.

This program defines two functions: factorial() and main(). The factorial() function is an asynchronous function, which means it can run concurrently with other tasks. The await keyword is used to suspend the execution of the factorial() function until it completes. The main() function simply calls the factorial() function and prints the result.

Python Keywords and Identifiers

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Python Keywords and Identifiers

Keywords in Python

Rules for Keywords in Python

List of Python Keywords

Identifiers in Python

Rules for Naming Python Identifiers

Examples of Python Identifiers

Python Keywords and Identifiers Examples

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