cannon
/ˈkæn.ən/
"cannon" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cannon” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,878 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,878
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A complete assembly, consisting of an artillery tube and a breech mechanism, firing mechanism or base cap, which is a component of a gun, howitzer or mortar, which may include muzzle appendages.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cannon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkæn.ən/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #6,878 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cannon” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cannon is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkæn.ən/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,878 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for cannon, with forms such as "acnnon", "cannno", and "cannonn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "canon", "canoe", "canny", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Attested from around 1400 as Middle English canon, canoun, from Old French canon, from Italian cannone, from Latin canna, from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of canyon. This spelling… The correct English form is cannon, spelled C-A-N-N-O-N.
Definition
- 1A complete assembly, consisting of an artillery tube and a breech mechanism, firing mechanism or base cap, which is a component of a gun, howitzer or mortar, which may include muzzle appendages.
- 2Any similar device for shooting material out of a tube.
- 3Any similar device for shooting material out of a tube.
- 4A bone of a horse’s leg, between the fetlock joint and the knee or hock.
- 5A rolled and filleted loin of meat.
- 6A cannon bit.
- 7A large muzzle-loading artillery piece.
- 8A carom.
- 9The arm of a player who can throw well.
- 10A hollow cylindrical piece carried by a revolving shaft, on which it may, however, revolve independently.
- 11A cylindrical item of plate armor protecting the arm, particularly one of a pair of such cylinders worn with a couter, the upper cannon protecting the upper arm and the lower cannon protecting the forearm.
- 12Alternative form of canon (“a large size of type”).
- 13A piece which moves horizontally and vertically like a rook but captures another piece by jumping over a different piece in the line of attack.
- 14A pickpocket.
Etymology
Attested from around 1400 as Middle English canon, canoun, from Old French canon, from Italian cannone, from Latin canna, from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of canyon. This spelling was not fixed until about 1800.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acnnon,cannno,cannonn,ccannon,cnanon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cannon - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “cannon”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-N-N-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkæn.ən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “canon” - see the side-by-side comparison. cannon vs canon
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.