canon
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "canon", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "canon" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "canon" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
canon is aEnglishnoun. It means: A generally accepted principle; a rule. Pronounced /ˈkæn.ən/. It ranks #5,940 in English word frequency. Often confused with CNN and con.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | canon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkæn.ən/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,940 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for canon is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkæn.ən/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,940 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for canon, with forms such as "acnon", "canno", and "canonn". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CNN", "con", "Cao", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English canoun, from Old French canon and Old English canon, both from Latin canōn, from Ancient Greek κανών (kanṓn, “measuring rod, standard”), akin to κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Semitic (compare Hebrew קָנֶה (qane, “reed”) and Arabic قَنَاة (… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is canon, spelled C-A-N-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A generally accepted principle; a rule.
- 2A generally accepted principle; a rule.
- 3A group of literary works that are generally accepted as representing a field.
- 4The works of a writer that have been accepted as authentic.
- 5A eucharistic prayer, particularly the Roman Canon.
- 6A religious law or body of law decreed by the church.
- 7A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Roman Catholic Church.
- 8In monasteries, a book containing the rules of a religious order.
- 9A piece of music in which the same melody is played by different voices, but beginning at different times; a round.
- 10A rent or stipend payable at some regular time, generally annual, e.g., canon frumentarius
- 11Those sources, especially including literary works, which are considered part of the main continuity regarding a given fictional universe; (metonymic) these sources' content.
- 12Alternative form of cannon (“rolled and filleted loin of meat”).
- 13A large size of type formerly used for printing the church canons, standardized as 48-point.
- 14The part of a bell by which it is suspended; the ear or shank of a bell.
Etymology
From Middle English canoun, from Old French canon and Old English canon, both from Latin canōn, from Ancient Greek κανών (kanṓn, “measuring rod, standard”), akin to κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Semitic (compare Hebrew קָנֶה (qane, “reed”) and Arabic قَنَاة (qanāh, “reed”)). Doublet of qanun. See also cane, cannon, canyon, canal.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acnon,canno,canonn,caonn,ccanon,cnaon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for canon
Misspelling Variants of "canon"
Frequency rank: #5,940 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: