Word.ws English Dictionary

canter

/ˈkæn.tə/US/ˈkæn.tɚ/

canter noun: a gait of a horse between a trot and a gallop, consisting of three beats and a "suspension" phase, where there are no feet on the ground. Also describing this gait on other four-legged animals.

Noun (1)

canter (plural canters)

  1. A gait of a horse between a trot and a gallop, consisting of three beats and a "suspension" phase, where there are no feet on the ground. Also describing this gait on other four-legged animals.
  2. A ride on a horse at such speed.

Verb

canter (third-person singular simple present canters, present participle cantering, simple past and past participle cantered)

  1. (intransitive) To move at such pace.
  2. (transitive) To cause to move at a canter; to ride (a horse) at a canter.

Noun (2)

canter (plural canters)

  1. One who cants or whines; a beggar.
  2. One who makes hypocritical pretensions to goodness; one who uses canting language.
    • The days when he was a canter and a rebel.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and...
    • From lawn-sleeved ranters to kerbstone canters, From bishops to Army lasses.1974, Bill Wannan, With Malice Aforethought, page 85

Proper noun capitalized: Canter

Canter (plural Canters)

  1. A surname.

canter meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

canter in Tamil

பரித்தாவல்

canter in Bengali

ঘোড়ার মাঝারি গতিতে দৌড়ানো

canter in Malayalam

കുതിരയുടെ മന്ദമായ കുതിച്ചോട്ടം

canter in Kannada

ಮೆಲ್ನಡ, ಸುಳುನಡೆ

Examples of canter in a sentence

  • She worked each horse at a walk, trot, and then a canter.
  • Exhausted, I canter through postpandrial naps atop a Senegalese camel, and in full beau geste.
  • Now for a canter through the woods, cooning logs, and waiding sloughs.

All 17 example sentences with canter

Synonyms of canter

Forms of canter

Noun
pluralcanters
Verb
third-person singular presentcanters
present participlecantering
past participlecantered
pastcantered
Proper noun
pluralCanters

Plural of canter: canters

Origin of canter

Short for Canterbury pace, from the supposed easy pace of medieval pilgrims to Canterbury.

From cant + -er.

Words formed from canter

Words that rhyme with canter

Questions about canter

What does canter mean?
Canter means a gait of a horse between a trot and a gallop, consisting of three beats and a "suspension" phase, where there are no feet on the ground. Also describing this gait on other four-legged animals.
What is canter in Tamil?
Canter in Tamil is பரித்தாவல். See Canter meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is canter?
Canter can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce canter?
Canter is pronounced /ˈkæn.tə/ (UK).
What is the plural of canter?
The plural of canter is canters.

Words near canter in the dictionary

  1. canteloups
  2. cantels
  3. Cantemir
  4. cantenna
  5. cantennas
  6. canter
  7. Cantera
  8. Canteras
  9. Canterburian
  10. Canterburianism
  11. Canterburians

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: canter (page history and authors); Canter (page history and authors); canter (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); canter (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); canter (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); canter (Kannada Wiktionary) (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)-Vealhurl-canter.wav.

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