canon: Meaning and Definition of

can•on

1. an ecclesiastical rule or law enacted by a council or other competent authority and, in the Roman Catholic Church, approved by the pope.
2. the body of ecclesiastical law.
3. the body of rules, principles, or standards accepted as axiomatic and universally binding in a field of study or art: the neoclassical canon.
4. a fundamental principle or general rule: the canons of good behavior.
5. a standard; criterion: the canons of taste.
6. the books of the Bible recognized by any Christian church as genuine and inspired.
7. any officially recognized set of sacred books.
8. any comprehensive list of books within a field.
9. the works of an author that have been accepted as authentic:Cf. apocrypha (def. 3). There are 37 plays in the Shakespeare canon.
10. a catalog or list, as of the saints acknowledged by the Church.
11. the part of the Mass between the Sanctus and the Communion.
12. a liturgical sequence sung at matins, usually consisting of nine odes arranged in a fixed pattern.
13. consistent, note-for-note imitation of one melodic line by another, in which the second line starts after the first.
14. a 48-point type.

can•on

1. one of a body of dignitaries or prebendaries attached to a cathedral or a collegiate church; a member of the chapter of a cathedral or a collegiate church.
2. one of the membersof certain religious orders.

ca•ñon

1. canyon.