Word.ws English Dictionary

can not

can not verb: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see can, not. Also the alternative form of cannot.

Verb

can not

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see can, not.
    • This “IV negation”, with emphatic stress, shows up in sentences like You can nót go to the party (“You have the option of not going to the party”) and You can’t nót go to the party (“You have no choice but to go to the party”).1979, David R[oach] Dowty, “Tenses and Time Adverbials”, in Word Meaning and Montague Grammar: The Semantics of Verbs and Times in Generative Semantics and in Montague’s PTQ, Dordrecht; Boston...
    • You can 'not obey the order, can’t you?1985, Randolph Quirk, A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Longman, →ISBN

Also used as

can not is also the alternative form of cannot.

Examples of can not in a sentence

  • Forget it.’ ‘I can not go and I’m not going.2005, Cathy Hopkins, Midsummer Meltdown, Piccadilly Press, published 2008, →ISBN:
  • I can’t not see the ceiling fan.” “You can not scowl at it.2013, Shannon Stacey, All He Ever Dreamed, Carina Press, →ISBN, page 167:

Questions about can not

What does can not mean?
Can not means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see can, not.
How do you use can not in a sentence?
Forget it.’ ‘I can not go and I’m not going.
What part of speech is can not?
Can not is a verb.

Words near can not in the dictionary

  1. can it
  2. can kicker
  3. can kickers
  4. can light
  5. can man
  6. can not
  7. can of corn
  8. can of worms
  9. can opener
  10. can openers
  11. Can Tho

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: can not (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “can not.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/can_not. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.