canon /(kăn"ŭn)/

can·on

canon

n.
  1. A law or rule.
    Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.
  2. A law, or rule of doctrine or discipline, enacted by a council and confirmed by the pope or the sovereign; a decision, regulation, code, or constitution made by ecclesiastical authority. (Eccl.)
    Various canons which were made in councils held in the second centry.
    — Hook.
  3. The collection of books received as genuine Holy Scriptures, called the sacred canon, or general rule of moral and religious duty, given by inspiration; the Bible; also, any one of the canonical Scriptures. See Canonical books, under Canonical, a.
  4. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of a religious order.
  5. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Roman Catholic Church.
  6. A member of a cathedral chapter; a person who possesses a prebend in a cathedral or collegiate church.
  7. A musical composition in which the voices begin one after another, at regular intervals, successively taking up the same subject. It either winds up with a coda (tailpiece), or, as each voice finishes, commences anew, thus forming a perpetual fugue or round. It is the strictest form of imitation. See Imitation. (Mus.)
  8. The largest size of type having a specific name; -- so called from having been used for printing the canons of the church. (Print.)
  9. The part of a bell by which it is suspended; -- called also ear and shank.
  10. See Carom. (Billiards)

Phrases & Compounds
Apostolical canons
See under Apostolical.
Augustinian canons
See under Augustinian.
Canon capitular
a resident member of a cathedral chapter (during a part or the whole of the year).
Canon law
See under Law.
Canon of the Mass
that part of the mass, following the Sanctus, which never changes.
Honorary canon
a canon{6} who neither lived in a monastery, nor kept the canonical hours.
Minor canon
one who has been admitted to a chapter, but has not yet received a prebend.
Regular canon
one who lived in a conventual community and followed the rule of St. Austin; a Black canon.
Secular canon
one who did not live in a monastery, but kept the hours.