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LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

canon.

canon, ecclesiastical title; member of canonry/cathedral chapter, Augustinian; canon/norm/rule; part of Mass; catalog/list; model; [~ Santorum => Saints list]; catalog of sacred writings admitted by rule, the_Canon; cannon/guns (pl.); sounding-board/channel of water organ; model/standard; measuring line, rule;

5 characters2 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

noun[ˈka.noːn]Classical-Latin[ˈkaː.non]
  1. a measuring line

    declension-3
  2. precept, rule, canon

    declension-3 · figuratively
  3. a yearly tribute paid to the emperor; (Medieval Latin, by extension) a periodic payment

    declension-3
  4. authorized catalog, especially of books of the Bible or of the saints

    Ecclesiastical · Latin · declension-3
  5. decree of a church synod

    Ecclesiastical · Latin · declension-3
  6. the Canon of the Mass

    Ecclesiastical · Latin · declension-3
  7. relic

    Medieval-Latin · declension-3
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κανών (kanṓn, “measuring rod, standard”), akin to κάννα (kánna, “reed”), perhaps from Semitic (compare Hebrew קנה (qaneh, “reed”)).

noun[ˈka.noːn]Classical-Latin[ˈkaː.non]
  1. a cannon (artillery)

    Medieval-Latin · declension-3
Where this word comes from

From canna (“pipe”), compare Italian cannone and Old French canon.

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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.