Canonical

Definitions: Canonical

Canonical

Adjective

1. Appearing in a Biblical canon; "a canonical book of the Christian New Testament".

2. Of or relating to or required by canon law.

3. Reduced to the simplest and most significant form possible without loss of generality; "a basic story line"; "a canonical syllable pattern".

4. Conforming to orthodox or recognized rules; "the drinking of cocktails was as canonical a rite as the mixing"- Sinclair Lewis.

Date "canonical" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references)

Specialty Definitions: Canonical

Domain	Definitions
Computing	Canonical adj. [very common; historically, `according to religious law'] The usual or standard state or manner of something. This word has a somewhat more technical meaning in mathematics. Two formulas such as 9 + x and x + 9 are said to be equivalent because they mean the same thing, but the second one is in `canonical form' because it is written in the usual way, with the highest power of x first. Usually there are fixed rules you can use to decide whether something is in canonical form. The jargon meaning, a relaxation of the technical meaning, acquired its present loading in computer-science culture largely through its prominence in Alonzo Church's work in computation theory and mathematical logic (see Knights of the Lambda Calculus). Compare vanilla. Non-technical academics do not use the adjective `canonical' in any of the senses defined above with any regularity; they do however use the nouns `canon' and `canonicity' (not canonicalness or canonicality). The `canon' of a given author is the complete body of authentic works by that author (this usage is familiar to Sherlock Holmes fans as well as to literary scholars). `_The_ canon' is the body of works in a given field (e.g., works of literature, or of art, or of music) deemed worthwhile for students to study and for scholars to investigate. The word `canon' has an interesting history. It derives ultimately from the Greek `kanon' (akin to the English `cane') referring to a reed. Reeds were used for measurement, and in Latin and later Greek the word `canon' meant a rule or a standard. The establishment of a canon of scriptures within Christianity was meant to define a standard or a rule for the religion. The above non-techspeak academic usages stem from this instance of a defined and accepted body of work. Alongside this usage was the promulgation of `canons' (`rules') for the government of the Catholic Church. The techspeak usages ("according to religious law") derive from this use of the Latin `canon'. Hackers invest this term with a playfulness that makes an ironic contrast with its historical meaning. A true story: One Bob Sjoberg, new at the MIT AI Lab, expressed some annoyance at the incessant use of jargon. Over his loud objections, GLS and RMS made a point of using as much of it as possible in his presence, and eventually it began to sink in. Finally, in one conversation, he used the word `canonical' in jargon-like fashion without thinking. Steele: "Aha! We've finally got you talking jargon too!" Stallman: "What did he say?" Steele: "Bob just used `canonical' in the canonical way." Of course, canonicality depends on context, but it is implicitly defined as the way _hackers_ normally expect things to be. Thus, a hacker may claim with a straight face that `according to religious law' is _not_ the canonical meaning of `canonical'. Source: Jargon File.
Health	A particular nucleotide sequence in which each position represents the base more often found when many actual sequences of a given class of genetic elements are compared. (references)
Literature	Canonical Canon is a Greek word, and means the index of a balance, hence a rule or law. (See above.) The sacred canon means the accepted books of Holy Scripture, which contain the inspired laws of salvation and morality; also called The Canonical Books. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Canonical

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Canonical--an adjective derived from canon--essentially means "standard" or "generally accepted." It is used most often when describing bodies of literature (including religious literature), or as a popular term in computing jargon (where it has the same basic meaning). For a good article on the word's use among computer types, see the Jargon File's entry for the word.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Canonical."

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Synonyms: Canonical

Synonyms: basic (adj), canonic (adj), sanctioned (adj). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Canonical

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Churchdom	Adjective: ecclesiastical, ecclesiological; clerical, sacerdotal, priestly, prelatical, pastoral, ministerial, capitular, theocratic; hierarchical, archiepiscopal; episcopal, episcopalian; canonical; monastic, monachal; monkish; abbatial, abbatical; Anglican; pontifical, papal, apostolic, Roman, Popish; ultramontane, priest-ridden.
Conformity	Typical, normal, nominal, formal; canonical, orthodox, sound, strict, rigid, positive, uncompromising, Procrustean.
Judeo-Christian Revelation	Adjective: scriptural, biblical, sacred, prophetic; evangelical, evangelistic; apostolic, apostolical; inspired, theopneustic, theophneusted, apocalyptic, ecclesiastical, canonical, textuary.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Canonical

English words defined with "canonical": agrapha, Antilegomena ♦ basic, Book of Proverbs ♦ canonic, Canonical books, Canonical epistles, Canonical form, canonical hour, Canonical hours, Canonical letters, Canonical life, Canonical obedience, Canonical punishments, Canonical Scriptures, Canonically, Canonicalness, Canonicity, complin, compline ♦ Divine Office ♦ Ecclesiastes, evensong ♦ General epistle ♦ Homologoumena, Honorary canon ♦ Maccabees, Matin, matins, morning prayer ♦ nones ♦ Plenary indulgence, prime ♦ Quadragene ♦ sanctioned, sext ♦ terce, tierce ♦ Uncanonize ♦ vespers. (references)

Specialty definitions using "canonical": 3D-object model ♦ arithmetic element, associable design ♦ BOFH, bogo-sort ♦ canonical class, canonical complexity class, canonical correlation, canonical correlation analysis, Canonical Dress, Canonical Encoding Rules, canonical name, canonical order, canonical sequence, canonical variate, cationic cocktail, CNAME, condition out, control-C ♦ elevator controller ♦ floating-point, for values of ♦ gorp ♦ halting problem, hello world, hello, world ♦ I didn't change anything! ♦ JACAL, JAffer's Canonical ALgebra ♦ killer micro ♦ line noise ♦ nugry ♦ PDFTeX, Peter, Second Epistle of, processor farm ♦ resolution by refutation ♦ Smec ♦ TATA, TATA-box, That's not a bug, that's a feature!, This time, for sure!, three-dimensional model, three-letter acronym ♦ You are not expected to understand this ♦ zorkmid. (references)

Etymologies containing "canonical": Deuterocanonical. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Canonical

Domain	Title
Books	Biblical Apocalyptics: A Study of the Most Notable Revelations of God and of Christ in the Canonical Scriptures (reference) Canon & Community: A Guide to Canonical Criticism (reference) Canonical Auto and Cross Correlations of Multivariate Time (reference) Canonical Problems in Scattering and Potential Theory Part II: Acoustic and Electromagnetic Diffraction by Canonical Str (reference) Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Canonical

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Mules in western China carrying Buddhist canonical literature, Choni Kanjur/Tanjur, on first stage of journey to the Library of Congress.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Use in Literature: Canonical

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	It is canonical subjection in all its abnegation.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Canonical

Subject	Topic	Quote
Civil Liberties	Estonia	The Patriarch, in his response, thanked the Prime Minister for his offer to register the church with the name suggested by the Moscow Patriarchate and also asked that the church be able to include canonical documents with its registration papers. (references)
	Moldova	The Bessarabian Orthodox Church considers itself to be the legal and canonical successor to the pre-World War II Romanian Orthodox Church in Bessarabia (a historical and geographical designation generally applied to the area bounded by the Danube, Nistru, and Prut Rivers, and the Black Sea). (references)
	Ukraine	They may preach, administer religious ordinances, or practice other canonical activities "only in those religious organizations which invited them to Ukraine and with official approval of the governmental body that registered the statutes and the articles of the pertinent religious organization." However, in practice the Government has not used the law to greatly limit the activity of nonnative religious organizations. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Canonical

"Canonical" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.46% of the time. "Canonical" is used about 184 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	99.46%	183	22,794
Noun (proper)	0.54%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	184	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Canonical

Expressions using "canonical": canonical books ♦ canonical class ♦ canonical correlation ♦ canonical correlation analysis ♦ canonical Encoding Rules ♦ Canonical epistles ♦ Canonical form ♦ canonical hour ♦ canonical hours ♦ Canonical letters ♦ Canonical life ♦ canonical matrix ♦ canonical name ♦ Canonical obedience ♦ canonical order ♦ Canonical punishments ♦ Canonical Scriptures ♦ canonical sequence ♦ Canonical sins ♦ canonical variate ♦ JAffer's Canonical ALgebra. Additional references.
Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "canonical": non-canonical.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Canonical

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
canonical	13
canonical correlation	8
canonical list	7
canonical name	5
canonical hours	3
book canonical	3
canonical computation form jordan	3
canonical form jordan	2
canonical perturbation theory	2
canonical form	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Canonical

Language		Translations for "canonical"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		kanonik (canonic), i së drejtës kishëtare (canonic), i pranuar (accepted, accredited, adopted, avowed, canonic, received), i biblës (canonic), i autorizuar (authorized, canonic, entrusting, proxy). (various references)

Bulgarian		канонически. (various references)

Chinese		� �准 (Criteria, Criterion, Criterions, standard). (various references)

Czech		kanonický (canonic). (various references)

Danish		kanoniske klasser (canonical classes). (various references)

Dutch		canonieke rangorde (canonical order, mathematical order), canonieke klasse (canonical classes), klassieke klasse (canonical classes), formele klasse (canonical classes). (various references)

Farsi		معیار (Criterion, Gauge, Paragon, Scale, Standard, Test, Touchstone, Yardstick), قانونی (Juridical, Lawful, Legal, Legitimate, Standard, Statutory, Valid), شرعی (Judicial(Ary), Juridical, Legal). (various references)

Finnish		kirkkovuosi (canonical year), kanoninen luokka (canonical classes). (various references)

French		canonique (canonic). (various references)

German		vorschriftsmäßige (according to directions). (various references)

Greek		κανονικόσ (normal, orderly, regular, standard). (various references)

Hungarian		kánonjogi (canonic), kánoni (canonic, canonical hours). (various references)

Italian		canonico (Canon, canonic). (various references)

Korean		교회법에 의하�". (various references)

Manx		canoanagh (canon), agglishagh (churchman, cleric, clerical, divine, ecclesiastic). (various references)

Pig Latin		anonicalcay

Portuguese		canônico (canonic), regular (adjust, bring into position, canonic, clean-cut, condition, correct, even, formal diplomatic ties, locate, locate from a mark, methodical, move into position, normal, order, position, post, register, register against a mark, regular, regulate, reposition, reset, sequential, set, smooth, steady, systematic, systematical, tolerable, unexceptional, uniform), eclesiástico (canonic, churchman, clergyman, cleric, clerical, clericalist, clerk, ecclesiastic, ecclesiastical, parson, priest, priestly), aprovado (accredited, approved, canonic, o.k., ok, okay, okey, okeydokey, successful candidate, to license). (various references)

Romanian		canonic (Canon, canonic), valabil (available, canonic, current, good, valid), autorizat (accredited, authoritative, authorized, canonic). (various references)

Russian		канонический (canonic). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		kanonski (canon, canonic). (various references)

Spanish		canónico (canonic, doctrinaire). (various references)

Swedish		kanonisk (canonic). (various references)

Turkish		standart (norm, normal, off-the-shelf, rule, standard, stock), kutsal kitapta geçen, kilise kanununa göre belirlenen, kabul edilmiş (admitted, received, sustained, uncontested). (various references)

Ukranian		сталий (canonic, changeless, constant, fuddy-duddy, settled, stabilized, steadfast, well balanced), церковно-правовий (canonic), канонічний (academic, canonic, iconic), ортодоксальний (canonic, catholic, orthodox), обов'язковий (canonic, indispensable, mandatory, obligated, obligatory, required). (various references)

Vietnamese		hợp với kinh điển; hợp với quy tắc tiêu chuẩn hợp với quy tắc giáo hội. (various references)

Welsh		canonaidd. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Canonical

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	canonicus. (various references)
Avestan	200-600	hañdâtâ. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Canonical

Derivations
	Words beginning with "canonical": canonically, canonicals. (additional references)
	Words ending with "canonical": deuterocanonical, uncanonical. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Canonical" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: canoncial, canonica, Canonicha, Canonicus, canonocal, Catonica, cononical, Cyanopica, Saxonica. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Canonical

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-c-i-l-n-n-o"
	-2 letters: anconal, cannoli, canonic, conical, laconic.
	-3 letters: alanin, alcaic, alnico, calico, cancan, canola, cicala, cloaca, clonic, cocain, oilcan.
	-4 letters: aloin, ancon, anion, annal, cacao, canal, canna, canon, coala, colic, colin, conic, conin, lanai, liana, linac, nicol.
	-5 letters: alan, anal, anil, anna, anoa, anon, caca, cain, calo, ciao, cion, clan, clon, coal, coca, coil, coin, cola, coni, conn, icon, laic, lain, linn, lino, lion, loan, loca, loci, loin, naan, nail, nana, naoi, noil, nona.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-c-c-i-l-n-n-o"
	+1 letter: canonicals.
	+2 letters: calcination, cancelation, canonically, uncanonical.
	+3 letters: calcinations, cancelations, cancellation, concanavalin, nonclassical, nonpractical.
	+4 letters: cancellations, concanavalins, contractional, convocational, nonmechanical.
	+5 letters: consociational, cyanocobalamin.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.