canvas
Syllables: can·vas/ˈkæn.vəs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Nigeria/ˈkæn.væs/
canvas noun: a type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp (traditionally) or from cotton and polyesters, useful for making sails, tents, and overcoats or as a surface for paintings. Also the obsolete spelling of canvass.
Noun
canvas (plural canvases or canvasses)
- A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp (traditionally) or from cotton and polyesters, useful for making sails, tents, and overcoats or as a surface for paintings.
- The term canvas is very widely used, as well to denote the coarse fabrics employed for kitchen use, as for strainers, and wraps for meat, as for the best quality of ordinary table and shirting linen.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 556
- A piece of such cloth stretched across a frame on which one may paint an artwork.
- She is painting a moonlight scene on the canvas.
- Light, rich as that which glows on the canvas of Claude.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and...
- A mesh of loosely woven cotton strands or molded plastic to be decorated with needlepoint, cross-stitch, rug hooking, or other crafts.
- A basis for creative work.
- The author takes rural midwestern life as a canvas for a series of tightly woven character studies
- A region on which graphics can be rendered.
- Sails in general.
- The double desire of being able to overtake a weaker flying enemy, or to escape when pursued by a stronger, has induced the owners to overmast their cruisers, and to spread too much canvass; and the great number of men, many of them not seamen, who being upon deck when a ship heels suddenly are...1785 August, Benjamin Franklin, “On Improvements in Navigation”, in Jared Sparks, editor, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, […], volume III, London: […] [Abraham John Valpy] for...
- A tent.
- He spent the night under canvas.
- A rough draft or model of a song, air, or other literary or musical composition; especially one to show a poet the measure of the verses he is to make.
- Athletic shoes.
Verb
canvas (third-person singular simple present canvases, present participle canvasing, simple past and past participle canvased)
Also used as
canvas is also the obsolete spelling of canvass.
canvas meaning in Marathi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
canvas in Marathi
- कॅनव्हास, कॅन्व्हास, कॅन्व्हस
canvas in Urdu
- کینوس, کینواس
canvas in Bengali
- ক্যানভাস, কেনভাস
canvas in Telugu
- కాన్వాస్, క్యాన్వాస్
More languagesFewer languages
- canvas in Malayalam
- ക്യാൻവാസ്, കാൻവാസ്, കാന്വാസ്
- canvas in Kannada
- ಕ್ಯಾನ್ವಾಸ್, ಕಾನ್ವಾಸ್, ಕ್ಯಾನ್ವಸ್
- canvas in Punjabi
- ਕੈਨਵਸ, ਕੈਨਵਾਸ
- canvas in Gujarati
- કેનવાસ, કેન્વાસ
- canvas in Odia
- କ୍ଯ଼ାନଭାସ, କ୍ଯ଼ାନଭାସ୍, କାନଭାସ୍
- canvas in Nepali
- क्यानभास, क्यानवास, क्यान्वास
- canvas in Tagalog
- lona
- canvas in Malay
- kanvas
- canvas in Thai
- ผ้าใบ pâa-bai, แคนวาส kɛɛn-wáat
- canvas in Vietnamese
- can-vát
Examples of canvas in a sentence
- The tent, made of tough canvas, held up to many abuses.
- The trapper wore deerskins because they were softer than cow leather garments and rustled less than canvas.
- The painting uses polylineal writing to create a brown texture over the lower third of the canvas.
Forms of canvas
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | canvases |
| plural | canvasses |
| alternative form | canvass |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | canvases |
| present participle | canvasing |
| past participle | canvased |
| past | canvased |
Origin of canvas
From Middle English canevas, from Anglo-Norman, from Old Northern French canevas (compare Old French chanevas, chenevas) from a root derived from Latin cannabis, from Ancient Greek κάνναβις (kánnabis). Compare French canevas, resulting from a blend of the Old French and a Picard dialect word, itself from Old Northern French. Doublet of cannabis and hemp.
A variant of canvass.
Words formed from canvas
Phrases with canvas
Questions about canvas
- What does canvas mean?
- Canvas means a type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp (traditionally) or from cotton and polyesters, useful for making sails, tents, and overcoats or as a surface for paintings.
- What is canvas in Marathi?
- Canvas in Marathi is कॅनव्हास, कॅन्व्हास, कॅन्व्हस. See Canvas meaning in Marathi.
- What part of speech is canvas?
- Canvas can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce canvas?
- Canvas is pronounced /ˈkæn.vəs/.
- What is the plural of canvas?
- The plural of canvas is canvases.
Words near canvas in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: canvas (page history and authors); canvas (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canvas (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canvas (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canvas (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canvas (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canvas (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canvas (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canvas (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canvas (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canvas (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-canvass.wav, En-us-canvas.ogg.
Cite this entry: “canvas.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/canvas. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.