Word.ws English Dictionary

canna

UK/ˈkænə/

canna noun: any member of the genus Canna of tropical plants with large leaves and often showy flowers. Also the contraction of can.

canna: any member of the genus Canna of tropical plants with large leaves and often showy flowers
Image: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

canna (plural cannas)

  1. Any member of the genus Canna of tropical plants with large leaves and often showy flowers.
    • A palisade of Canary palms formed an honour guard along the verges, while beds of golden cannas flamed from the central reservation.2000, JG Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 7
    • Still, some of Mr. Cooper’s tender salvias are wintering over, and he plans to leave a few clumps of cannas in the ground next fall.2007 January 18, Anne Raver, “Is It Spring? Winter? What’s a Flower to Think?”, in New York Times
    Synonyms:
    canna lily

Noun (2)

canna (plural cannas)

  1. (historical) A measure of length in Italy, varying from six to seven feet.

Proper noun capitalized: Canna

Canna

  1. An island in the Small Isles, Inner Hebrides, Highland council area, Scotland, joined to the island of Sanday by a bridge.
  2. A town and comune in Cosenza province, Calabria, Italy.
  3. A small town in the Shire of Morawa, Mid West region, Western Australia.

Also used as

canna is also the contraction of can.

canna is also the clipping of cannabis.

canna meaning in Arabic

canna in Arabic

tropical plant of the genus Canna
قَنَّا qannā

Synonyms of canna

  • canna lily

Forms of canna

pluralcannas

Origin of canna

Borrowed from translingual Canna, from Latin canna (“reed”), from Ancient Greek κᾰ́ννᾰ (kắnnă, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒂵𒉡𒌑𒌝 (qanûm). Cognates Biblical Hebrew קָנֶה (qané), Aramaic קַנְיָא (qanyā), Classical Syriac ܩܢܝܐ (qanya), and English canon, cannon, canal, and channel. Doublet of cane and kaneh.

Borrowed from Scots cannae, can + -nae.

Borrowed from Italian canna. Doublet of cane and kaneh.

Words formed from canna

Phrases with canna

Words that rhyme with canna

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about canna

What does canna mean?
Canna means any member of the genus Canna of tropical plants with large leaves and often showy flowers.
What is canna in Arabic?
Canna in Arabic is قَنَّا (qannā). See Canna meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is canna?
Canna can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce canna?
Canna is pronounced /ˈkænə/ (UK).
What is the plural of canna?
The plural of canna is cannas.

Words near canna in the dictionary

  1. CANMARPAC
  2. Canmore
  3. cann
  4. Cann River
  5. cann't
  6. canna
  7. canna mom
  8. canna-mom
  9. cannabaceous
  10. cannabal
  11. cannabalise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: canna (page history and authors); Canna (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-canna.wav.

Cite this entry: “canna.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/canna. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.