Word.ws English Dictionary

canon

/ˈkæn.ən/

canon noun: a generally accepted principle; a rule. Also the alternative form of cannon.

canon: a generally accepted principle; a rule
Image: Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

canon (countable and uncountable, plural canons)

  1. A generally accepted principle; a rule.
    • The trial must proceed according to the canons of law.
    • Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    1. A formally codified set of criteria deemed mandatory for a particular artistic style of figurative art.
      • the Canon of Polykleitos
      • Despite the many advances made by modern scholars towards a clearer comprehension of the theoretical basis of the Canon of Polykleitos, the results of these studies show an absence of any general agreement upon the practical application of that canon in works of art.1975, Richard Tobin, “The Canon of Polykleitos”, in American Journal of Archaeology, volume 79, number 4, →DOI, →JSTOR, retrieved 02 Oct 2020, pages 307–321
  2. A group of literary works that are generally accepted as representing a field.
    • Russo had been working as a salesman, selling Great Books of the Western World, hawking the canon to the rubes.1992 February 2, Mitzel, “Clay Shaw, The Quean Network & That Kennedy Killing”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 28, page 12
    • the durable canon of American short fiction2015, William Styron, “Irwin Shaw”, in My Generation: Collected Nonfiction, page 456
  3. The works of a writer that have been accepted as authentic.
    • the entire Shakespearean canon
  4. A eucharistic prayer, particularly the Roman Canon.
  5. A religious law or body of law decreed by the church.
    • We must proceed according to canon law.
  6. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Roman Catholic Church.
  7. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of a religious order.
  8. A piece of music in which the same melody is played by different voices, but beginning at different times; a round.
    • Pachelbel’s Canon has become very popular.
  9. (Roman) A rent or stipend payable at some regular time, generally annual, e.g., canon frumentarius
    • The lessees of public lands had to pay a perpetual rent or "canon" at some periodical time.1919 January, Charles P. Sherman, “A Brief History of Imperial Roman Canon Law”, in California Law Review, volume 7, number 2, Berkeley, California: University of California, pages 96–97
  10. (slang, uncountable) The officially recognized continuity, events, characters, relationships, etc. of a work of fiction.
    • A spin-off book series revealed the aliens to be originally from Earth, but it's not canon.
    • Meanwhile, having learned the whereabouts of the Death Star's plans, the rebels send their best platypus agent to obtain them, in hopes of finding a weakness. And none of this is canon, so just relax.2014, Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars
  11. (dated, uncountable) A large size of type formerly used for printing the church canons, standardized as 48-point.
    Synonyms:
    French canon
  12. The part of a bell by which it is suspended; the ear or shank of a bell.

Noun (2)

canon (plural canons)

  1. A type of clergymember serving a cathedral or collegiate church.
    • The records show that in the early 960s the cathedral at Winchester was administered by a group of canons, every one of whom was married.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 169
  2. A canon regular, a member of any of several Roman Catholic religious orders.

Proper noun capitalized: Canon

Canon (plural Canons)

  1. A surname.
  2. (with-definite-article) The Canon of the Mass.

Noun (3) capitalized: Canon

Canon (plural Canons)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of canon: a member of a chapter.
  2. Title for a canon.
    • Canon Smith is our new parish priest.

Also used as

canon is also the alternative form of cannon.

canon is also the clipping of canonical.

canon is also the alternative spelling of qanun.

canon is also the alternative spelling of cannon.

canon is also the obsolete spelling of canyon.

canon meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu

canon in Hindi

कैनन

canon in Marathi

कॅनन, कानोन

canon in Bengali

ক্যানন

canon in Telugu

కానన్, క్యానన్, కానోన్
More languagesFewer languages
canon in Malayalam
കാനോൻ, കാനോൺ, കാനൺ
canon in Gujarati
કેનન
canon in Odia
କାନନ୍, କ୍ଯ଼ାନନ୍ |
canon in Nepali
क्यानन, कैनन, कानोन
canon in Indonesian
kanon

Examples of canon in a sentence

  • The canon law on this matter conflicts with several other canon laws.
  • In many churches some pews are reserved for either clerical or liturgical officials such as canons, or for prominent families.
  • Canon law determines who is declared a saint.

All 40 example sentences with canon

Synonyms of canon

Antonyms

Forms of canon

Noun
pluralcanons
pluralCanons
Adjective
comparativemore canon
superlativemost canon
Proper noun
pluralCanons

Plural of canon: canons

Origin of canon

From Middle English canoun, from Old French canon and Old English canon, both from Latin canōn, from Ancient Greek κανών (kanṓn, “measuring rod, standard”), akin to κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Semitic (compare Hebrew קָנֶה (qane, “reed”) and Arabic قَنَاة (qanāh, “reed”)). Doublet of qanun. See also cane, cannon, canyon, canal.

From Middle English canoun, ultimately from Latin canonicus (either by shortening or back-formation from Old English canonic, or via Old Northern French canoine).

From Spanish cañón, spelling it without the diacritics.

Words formed from canon

Phrases with canon

Words that rhyme with canon

Questions about canon

What does canon mean?
Canon means a generally accepted principle; a rule.
What is canon in Hindi?
Canon in Hindi is कैनन. See Canon meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is canon?
Canon can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce canon?
Canon is pronounced /ˈkæn.ən/.
What is the plural of canon?
The plural of canon is canons.

Words near canon in the dictionary

  1. canola
  2. canola oil
  3. canola oils
  4. canolas
  5. Canomay
  6. canon
  7. canon bit
  8. canon bits
  9. canon bone
  10. canon bones
  11. canon by contrary motion

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: canon (page history and authors); Canon (page history and authors); canon (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canon (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canon (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canon (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canon (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canon (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canon (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canon (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-canon.wav.

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