Canon Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary (original) (raw)

Britannica Dictionary definition of CANON

[count]

1

formal

:

an accepted rule or guide about how people should behave or about how something should be done

• Anyone who violates every canon of decency as she has done should be dismissed immediately.
• the canons of good taste
• By the canons of science, the experiment was not valid.

2

a

:

a group of books, poems, plays, etc., that are traditionally considered to be very important

• the canon of American literature = the American literary canon
• She argues that the canon excludes too many women and minority writers.

b

:

the group of books, poems, plays, etc., that a particular author is known to have written

• the small canon of Alcott novels

c

:

a list of books that are considered to be part of a religion's official text

• writings that are outside the Jewish canon

3

:

a piece of music in which the same melody is started at different times by each of the different groups of voices or instruments

Britannica Dictionary definition of CANON

[count]

:

a Christian priest who works in a cathedral