cannon
/ˈkæn.ən/
"cannon" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cannon” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #6,878. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #6,878
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cannon · cannon · English
cannon · rank #6,878 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,878
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH carol
Nearest frequency peer: carol (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “cannon”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- broadcasting
broadcasting
93,127 corpus weight
- BS
BS
93,126 corpus weight
- bullets
bullets
93,125 corpus weight
- cannon
cannon
93,123 corpus weight
- carol
carol
93,122 corpus weight
- chairs
chairs
93,120 corpus weight
What this shows “cannon” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “cannon”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around cannon (IPA /ˈkæn.ən/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,878 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 14 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cannon appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Holonyms: gun, field gun; howitzer; mortar
water cannon; glitter cannon; confetti cannon; potato cannon
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cannon", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).