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canon
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

canon as in:  a canonical requirement

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  • •
    The canons of classical rhetoric emphasize clarity, logic, and persuasion.
    canons = established standards
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    But let's think in terms of slightly more canonical sources.  (source)
    canonical = established
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    Does he consider this pamphlet of Mr. Paine's as a canonical book of political scripture?  (source)
    canonical = established standard
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Show 10 more with 6 word variations
  • •
    On that account, the canons of metaphor, poetic and visual, should be revised.†  (source)
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    In seven canonical words, she exhorts, cajoles, commands someone—herself?†  (source)
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    The mincer now stands before you invested in the full canonicals of his calling.†  (source)
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    The kettle of his gift sang with some satire in its note, to his mind; and to change the subject he said, "Do you know of any good readable edition of the uncanonical books of the New Testament?"  (source)
    uncanonical = not officially selected
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uncanonical means not and reverses the meaning of canonical. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • •
    In my circles, we call them noncanonical gospels.†  (source)
    noncanonical = not from an official or established rule or principle
    standard prefix: The prefix "non-" in noncanonical means not and reverses the meaning of canonical. This is the same pattern you see in words like nonfat, nonfiction, and nonprofit.
  • •
    Most of us, at some moment in our young lives, would have welcomed a priest of that natural order in any sort of canonicals or uncanonicals, but had to scramble upward into all the difficulties of nineteen entirely without such aid, as Maggie did.†  (source)
    uncanonicals = items not officially selected
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uncanonicals means not and reverses the meaning of canonicals. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    To Nathan, brother of a first-rate doctor, a young man who considered himself a dedicated scientist (and for whom the canons of medical ethics were as sacred as if he himself had taken the Hippocratic oath), the idea of her laboring in the employ of a quack was nearly intolerable.†  (source)
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    At the seventh canonical hour, at one in the morning by the clock, a dark low sweet humming drifted from the deepest of the monastery bells, which hardly stirred.†  (source)
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    The king sat under a canopy of state; about him were clustered a large body of the clergy in full canonicals.†  (source)
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    when though, according to Genesis, the angels indeed consorted with the daughters of men, the devils also, add the uncanonical Rabbins, indulged in mundane amours.†  (source)
    uncanonical = not officially selected
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canon as in:  the Shakespearean canon

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  • •
    Shakespeare’s plays are part of the English literary canon.
    canon = list of important works
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    The novel was added to the school’s reading canon for its historical value.
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    Ladyhawke's cast alone makes the film canon!  (source)
    canon = an authoritative list of works
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    The canon of black autobiography sensibly includes scores of books about resistance to the American system.  (source)
    canon = list of important works
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    The "literary canon," by the way, is a master list of works that everyone pretends doesn't exist (the list, not the works) but that we all know matters in some important way.  (source)
    canon = recognized list of important works
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    And you're more anti-American than any Canadian I know," the canon said.†  (source)
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    The Bible represents a fundamental guidepost for millions of people on the planet, in much the same way the Koran, Torah, and Pali Canon offer guidance to people of other religions.†  (source)
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    After all, we hardly adhere to vampire canon.†  (source)
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    Phillip has also bought a Canon printer.†  (source)
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    Chalk it up to another bad boyfriend story, one more added to the canon.†  (source)
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    He quickly grabs what he needs for Spanish, Calculus, Richard Wright, and now History of Education, as he runs-past Freud, Jung, Nietzsche, Kant, Faulkner, Shakespeare, the whole Western Canon-for the cashier, feeling like he'll escape intact.†  (source)
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    In the beatnik canon it was America's sickness that had produced the bomb.†  (source)
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    A few minutes later, Jeremiah added another with a canon shot from fifteen yards out.†  (source)
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canon as in:  played a canon

•
Pachelbel’s Canon in D is one of the most famous examples of this musical form.
canon = layered melody
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    In the choir’s performance, one voice started the canon, and the others joined in at staggered times.
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    Pachelbel: "Canon in D"  (source)
    Canon = a melody that, after a short interval, is exactly repeated by a different instrument or voice to create competing melodic lines
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canon as in:  He is a canon of Toledo

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    The new canon moved into the residence next to the church grounds.
    canon = a clergy member of the Catholic Church
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    And everything you need to know about the Bible can be summed up by the great canon doctor Martyn Percy.  (source)
    canon = church official of the Catholic Church
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    —her father had been a Canon.  (source)
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Show 3 more with 2 word variations
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    It was united by long tradition to the Cathedral: its headmaster was an honorary Canon, and a past headmaster was the Archdeacon.  (source)
    Canon = church official of the Catholic Church
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    The distance also is so great that it needs a man with a fine voice and a knowledge of elocution to make himself heard in the choir; and according to long usage the Canons of Tercanbury are chosen for their learning rather than for any qualities which might be of use in a cathedral church.  (source)
    Canons = officials of the Catholic Church
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    They made no particular impression on him, but it happened that two or three days later, being Sunday, the Canon in residence chose them for the text of his sermon.  (source)
    Canon = church official of the Catholic Church
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rare meaning

Show 3 with this contextual meaning
  • •
    Hey, maybe we could shoot this with my dad's Canon DV camera?  (source)
    Canon = a brand name
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    Three more huskies were added to the team inside an hour, making a total of nine, and before another quarter of an hour had passed they were in harness and swinging up the trail toward the Dyea Canon.  (source)
    Canon = part of the name of a place
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    The letters were upside down to me from where I sat, but Lucy was more opposite to them, so she leant over and read, "Sacred to the memory of George Canon, who died, in the hope of a glorious resurrection, on July 29, 1873, falling from the rocks at Kettleness."  (source)
    Canon = a person's name
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    It was a hard day's run, up the Canon, through Sheep Camp, past the Scales and the timber line, across glaciers and snowdrifts hundreds of feet deep, and over the great Chilcoot Divide, which stands between the salt water and the fresh and guards forbiddingly the sad and lonely North.  (source)
    Canon = the name of a place
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    But then I would keep the Canon Elph on me openly, dangling from my hand by a wristlet.  (source)
    Canon = brand name of a camera
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    I took my purse, a small cross-body that only held a wallet, ChapStick, and a Canon Elph digital camera.  (source)
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