cancel
Syllables: can·cel/ˈkæn.sl̩/
cancel verb: to cross out something with lines etc.
Verb
cancel (third-person singular simple present cancels, present participle (US) canceling or (UK) cancelling, simple past and past participle (US) canceled or (UK) cancelled)
- To cross out something with lines etc.
- A deed may be avoided by delivering it up to be cancelled; that is, to have lines drawn over it in the form of latticework or cancelli; the phrase is now used figuratively for any manner of obliterating or defacing it.1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC
- To invalidate or annul something.
- He cancelled his order on their website.
- "I don't know what your agreement was, Herr Professor, but if it had money in it, cancel it. I want him to learn that lesson, too."1914, Marjorie Benton Cooke, Bambi
- To mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it cannot be reused.
- This machine cancels the letters that have a valid zip code.
- To offset or equalize something.
- The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.
- To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.
- Such a 2-handle cancels the 1-handle so the manifold is D⁴.2003, Gordana Matić, Clint McCrory, Topology and geometry of manifolds, →ISBN, page 182
- To stop production of a programme.
- To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
- To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.
- cancelled from heaven1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- To kill.
- Synonyms:
- annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring down, bump off, bury, cack, compromised to a permanent end
- To cease to provide financial or moral support to (someone deemed unacceptable); to disinvite. Compare cancel culture.
- Bill Gates is canceled. Gwen Stefani and Erykah Badu are canceled. Despite his relatively strong play in the World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo has been canceled. Taylor Swift is canceled and Common is canceled and, Wednesday, Antoni Porowski, a “Queer Eye” fan favorite was also canceled. Needless to...2018 June 28, Jonah Engel Bromwich, “Everyone Is Canceled”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 20 Apr 2020
- We Spoke to Joan Cornellá, the Artist Who Really Should Have Been Cancelled By Now [title]2019 May 17, Christopher Hooton, “We Spoke to Joan Cornellá, the Artist Who Really Should Have Been Cancelled By Now”, in VICE, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2024
- Synonyms:
- blacklist, deplatform, black, blackball, boycott
Noun
cancel (plural cancels)
- A cancellation.
- An enclosure; a boundary; a limit.
- A prison is but a retirement, and opportunity of serious thoughts, to a person whose spirit[…]desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body.1678, Antiquitates Christianæ: Or, the History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […], London: […] E. Flesher, and R. Norton, for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC
- The suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.
- The page thus suppressed.
- The page that replaces it.
Proper noun capitalized: Cancel
Cancel (plural Cancels)
- A surname.
cancel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
cancel in Hindi
- cross out
- निरस्त nirast
- invalidate, annul
- निरस्त nirast
- cancellation
- निरसन nirsan
cancel in Tamil
- நீக்கறல், எதிராணை, அச்சடித்த தாளை வெளிவிடாதடக்குதல், துடைத்தழி, இல்லாதாக்கு, நீக்கு
cancel in Marathi
- रद्द करणे, रद्द करायला, रद्द करायचे
cancel in Urdu
- باطل کرنا, فسخ کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
- cancel in Bengali
- বাতিলকরণ, রদ, কাটিয়া ফেলা, কাটিয়া দেওয়া
- cancel in Telugu
- రద్దు చేయడానికి, రద్దు చెయ్యడానికి, రద్దుచేయడానికి
- cancel in Malayalam
- റദ്ദാക്കുക ṟaddākkuka, ഒഴിവാക്കുക oḻivākkuka
- cancel in Kannada
- ಇಲ್ಲವಾಗಿಸು, ನೀಗು, ತೆಗೆದುಹಾಕು, ಇಲ್ಲಗೊಳಿಸು
- cancel in Gujarati
- રદ કરવા માટે, રદ કરવા, રદ્દ કરવા માટે
- cancel in Odia
- ବାତିଲ କରିବାକୁ, ବାତିଲ କରିବା
- cancel in Sinhala
- කැන්සල්
- cancel in Assamese
- ভাঙা bhaṅa, ভাগা bhaga, ভঙা bhoṅa, ভগা bhoga
- cancel in Nepali
- रद्द गर्न
- cancel in Tagalog
- payiin
- cancel in Arabic
- أَلْغَى ʔalḡā, أَبْطَلَ ʔabṭala
- cancel in Malay
- batal
- cancel in Indonesian
- bungkus, menghentikan, judul pengganti
- cancel in Thai
- ขีดฆ่า kìit-kâa, ยกเลิก yók-lə̂ək
- cancel in Vietnamese
- hủy, hủy bỏ, phong sát
Examples of cancel in a sentence
- One consequence of this is Australia cancelling a contract, worth tens of billions of dollars, signed in 2016 with France for diesel-electric submarines.2021 September 19, “The strategic reverberations of the AUKUS deal will be big and lasting”, in The Economist, archived from the original...
- Gwen Stefani and Erykah Badu are canceled.2018 June 28, Jonah Engel Bromwich, “Everyone Is Canceled”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 20 Apr 2020:
- You may have never heard the term "cancel culture," but you certainly know some of the faces who have been canceled.2020 February 5, Russell Haythorn, “An explanation of ‘cancel culture’ and why it's become such a popular phenomenon”, in The Denver...
- To attempt to cancel the founding generation is an attempt to cancel our own freedoms.2020 July 3, Kristi Noem speech at Mount Rushmore, C-SPAN:
Synonyms of cancel
- belay
- undo
- remit
- annihilate
- bag
- baptize
- bereave of life
- blight
- bring down
- bump off
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of cancel
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | cancels |
| present participle US | canceling |
| present participle UK | cancelling |
| past participle US | canceled |
| past US | canceled |
| past participle UK | cancelled |
| past UK | cancelled |
| alternative form (obsolete) | cancell |
| Noun | |
| plural | cancels |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Cancels |
Origin of cancel
From Middle English cancellen, from Anglo-Norman canceler (“to cross out with lines”) (modern French chanceler (“to stagger, sway”)), from Old French canceler, from Latin cancellō (“to make resemble a lattice”), from cancellus (“a railing or lattice”), diminutive of cancer (“a lattice”).
Words formed from cancel
Phrases with cancel
Questions about cancel
- What does cancel mean?
- Cancel means to cross out something with lines etc.
- What is cancel in Hindi?
- Cancel in Hindi is निरस्त (nirast), निरसन (nirsan). See Cancel meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use cancel in a sentence?
- One consequence of this is Australia cancelling a contract, worth tens of billions of dollars, signed in 2016 with France for diesel-electric submarines.
- What part of speech is cancel?
- Cancel can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cancel?
- Cancel is pronounced /ˈkæn.sl̩/.
- What is the past tense of cancel?
- The past tense of cancel is canceled.
Words near cancel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cancel (page history and authors); Cancel (page history and authors); cancel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cancel (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cancel (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cancel (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cancel (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cancel (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cancel (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cancel (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cancel (Sinhala Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ভগা (Assamese) (page history and authors); cancel (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-cancel.ogg.
Cite this entry: “cancel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cancel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.