canon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a rule or especially body of rules or principles generally established as valid and fundamental in a field or art or philosophy

   the neoclassical canon

2. 2
   noun

   A generally accepted principle; a rule.

   The trial must proceed according to the canons of law.

3. 3
   noun

   A group of literary works that are generally accepted as representing a field.

   Russo had been working as a salesman, selling Great Books of the Western World, hawking the canon to the rubes.

4. 4
   noun

   The works of a writer that have been accepted as authentic.

   the entire Shakespearean canon

5. 5
   noun

   A religious law or body of law decreed by the church.

   We must proceed according to canon law.

6. 6
   noun

   A piece of music in which the same melody is played by different voices, but beginning at different times; a round.

   Pachelbel’s Canon has become very popular.

7. 7
   noun

   A rent or stipend payable at some regular time, generally annual, e.g., canon frumentarius

   The lessees of public lands had to pay a perpetual rent or "canon" at some periodical time.

8. 8
   noun

   Those sources, especially including literary works, which are considered part of the main continuity regarding a given fictional universe; (metonymic) these sources' content.

   A spin-off book series revealed the aliens to be originally from Earth, but it's not canon.

Etymology

* As an English, Scottish, and Irish surname, variant of Cannon. * As a French topographical surname, from placenames derived from canne (“reed, cane, tube”). * As a Chaldean/Chaldean Neo-Aramaic surname, variant of Kanon, Kanoun, from [script needed] (Kānūn), the Classical Syriac name of the ninth and tenth months of the Assyrian calendar, from ܟܢܘܢ ܒ.