overwordExplorer
LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

canis.

a dog, a hound (animal)

5 characters2 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

noun[ˈka.nɪs]Classical-Latin[ˈkaː.nis]

  1. a dog, a hound (animal)

    declension-3 · feminine · masculine

  2. a ‘dog’ constellation or ‘dog’ star: either Canis Major, its brightest star Sirius; or Canis Minor, its brightest star Procyon

    declension-3 · feminine · masculine

  3. a dog, a hound, a bounder, a blackguard, a cad, a heel (foul person)

    declension-3 · feminine · masculine

  4. a dog, a creature (human parasite or follower who depends on someone with great power and resources and bends to their will)

    declension-3 · feminine · masculine

  5. a tiger, a dragon, a savage (a fierce or enraged person)

    declension-3 · feminine · masculine

  6. the lowest, worst throw at the dice, an ace

    declension-3 · feminine · masculine
Where this word comes from

From earlier canēs. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ, *ḱun- (“dog”), from earlier *ḱwón-s, whence also Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn), Sanskrit श्वन् (śván), though the expected outcome was formally much altered. The -a- gained a number of ad hoc explanations, such as a shift of *-wo- to *-wa- in open syllables, or of *-n̥- to -an- before vowels. The initial unrounded c- must have been levelled early into the rest of the inflection from the expected nominative outcome *cō, as *ḱw- would have regularly delabialised before a rounded vowel.

adj[ˈkaː.niːs]Classical-Latin[ˈkaː.nis]

  1. dative/ablative masculine/feminine/neuter plural of cānus

    ablative · dative · feminine · form-of · masculine · neuter · plural
Where this word comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

verb[ˈka.nɪs]Classical-Latin[ˈkaː.nis]

  1. second-person singular present active indicative of canō

    active · form-of · indicative · present · second-person · singular
Where this word comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.