canon1
/ˈkanən
/noun
1A general law, rule, principle, or criterion by which something is judged: the appointment violated the canons of fair play and equal opportunity...
- All they have is administrative fiat which fails any of the canons of the rule of law.
- Traditional religious beliefs that are paranormal, that is, that violate the canons of scientific causality, exhibit a negative correlation with education and scientific knowledge.
- This is perfectly valid and appropriate advice from the vantage point of the canons of structured interviewing with its quest for standardization and for valid and reliable data.
Synonyms
principle, rule, law, tenet, precept, formula;
standard, convention, norm, pattern, model, exemplar;
criterion, measure, yardstick, benchmark, test
1.1A Church decree or law: a set of ecclesiastical canons [mass noun]: legislation which enables the Church of England General Synod to provide by canon for women to be ordained...
- They, not the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent, or even the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, were the true legacy of early modern Catholicism for the modern age.
- Here, as elsewhere, Coriden notes the tension between the roots of the canons in Roman law and a more recent desire to highlight their connection to the imperatives of the gospel life.
- Ironically, the monks, who are excluded from politics by both legal laws and religious canons, are probably among the most crucial actors in local elections.
Synonyms
law, decree, edict, statute, dictate, dictum, ordinance;
rule, ruling, regulation;
Roman Catholic Church decretal
2A collection or list of sacred books accepted as genuine: the biblical canon...
- It is more than just another book on this puzzling book of the biblical canon.
- To create a canon of sacred writings is to create a collection which will be in some sense normative for the community for which it is intended.
- Many Baptists believe that within the biblical canon, the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are preeminent.
2.1The works of a particular author or artist that are recognized as genuine: the Shakespeare canon...
- As well as illuminating the subtle stylistic differences of these writers, Bergeron perceptively locates correspondences between the civic pageantry and other areas of the authors' canons, particularly the drama.
- Further, an author's canon provides an unstable foundation for constructing his or her personal beliefs, as scholarship on Map's works demonstrates.
- The canon of his prose writings long included De Doctrina Christiana, an unorthodox theological treatise first printed in 1825.
Synonyms
(list of) works, writings, oeuvre
2.2The list of works considered to be permanently established as being of the highest quality: Hopkins was firmly established in the canon of English poetry...
- He also said that Bermuda's education of its young is incomplete without the inclusion of established canons of African literature and other texts in the school curriculum.
- Cultural competence is defined as ‘control of an established canon of literature’.
- Indeed, a Caribbean female presence has established itself in the literary canons of both Canada and the United States.
3 (also canon of the Mass) (In the Roman Catholic Church) the part of the Mass containing the words of consecration.Do you accept the presider's invitation to join him in the sanctuary for the canon of the Mass?...
- A homily would have been preached between the reading of the gospel and the central canon of the Mass but the question of how often and of what quality is still being discussed.
4 Music A piece in which the same melody is begun in different parts successively, so that the imitations overlap: the very simple rhythmic structure of this double canon [mass noun]: two quartets sing in close canon throughout...
- ‘River’ creates a big piece from a small idea, propelling a simple melody into rounds and canons that imitate the flowing, winding object of the song's title.
- A canon for two voices using one line of melody is called a canon two in one, three voices with one melody a canon three in one, and so on.
- He takes a little minuet on a journey ‘through contrapuntal couplets, canons and inversions beore breaking into romantic rhapsodising’.
Phrases
in canon
Origin
Old English: from Latin, from Greek kanōn 'rule', reinforced in Middle English by Old French canon.
Rhymes
canon2
/ˈkanən/noun
1A member of the clergy who is on the staff of a cathedral, especially one who is a member of the chapter: he was appointed canon of Christ Church, Oxford [as title]: a portrait of Canon Jarrat and his wife hangs in the church today...
- After 15 years, he returned as parish priest to Beverley, during which time he was made a canon of the cathedral chapter in 1982.
- The power to sack vicars would be given to bishops under a proposed ‘common tenure’ arrangement for all clergy, including curates, cathedral canons and the bishops themselves.
- Cathedrals which were not monastic foundations, and collegiate churches, were served by secular clergy, the canons or prebendaries, who constituted the capitular body or chapter.
1.1 (also canon regular or regular canon) (In the Roman Catholic Church) a member of certain orders of clergy that live communally according to an ecclesiastical rule in the same way as monks.These circumstances explain the important role of the new religious orders in these areas - the Augustinian canons regular and each of the four main orders of friars in Ireland, for example, and the Cistercians in Wales....
- Higden apart, these were all secular clerks rather than monks or canons regular.
- A monastery (from the Greek ‘to live alone’) is a more or less self-contained settlement constructed to house a community of monks or canons.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'canon regular'): from Old French canonie, from Latin canonicus 'according to rule' (see canonic). The other sense dates from the mid 16th century.
cañon3
/ˈkanjən/noun
Archaic spelling of canyon.