William Nack
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What is the difference between cannon and canon?
Cannon and canon are occasionally confused by writers, but the two words have independent origins, and do not share a meaning. Cannon is most frequently found used in the sense of "a large gun," and can be traced to the Old Italian word cannone, which means "large tube." Canon, however, comes from the Greek word kanōn, meaning "rule." Although canon has a variety of meanings, it is most often found in the senses of "a rule or law of a church," "an accepted rule," or "a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works." A loose cannon is "a dangerously uncontrollable person or thing." There are no loose canons.
Examples of cannon in a Sentence
Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Mar. 2024
The Chinese Coast Guard service is under military control, and its ships can carry cannons and other weapons.
—Amy Chang Chien, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2024
Klimt’s mysticism is a kind of busy stagecraft, all confetti cannons and angels dangling from ropes.
—Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2024
Don’t let the setlist of back-to-back pop hits, sparkly costumes or confetti cannons fool you — Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour is totally punk rock, as certified by Eddie Vedder in a recent piece.
—Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 18 Mar. 2024
The archeologists determined the guns were British six and nine-pound cannons the crew threw overboard based on their size, features and location, according to the release.
—Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY, 18 Mar. 2024
At a special screening of the movie held Wednesday in Los Angeles, Gosling, 43, and Blunt, 41, presented Logan Holladay with a Guinness World Record: for most cannon rolls in a car.
—Jack Smart, Peoplemag, 14 Mar. 2024
Nearby cannons fired off a seemingly never-ending stream of red-and-gold confetti, rains of gratification pouring down on Forbes, a grad transfer from Harvard who’d seen about all there was to see in college basketball.
—Luca Evans, Orange County Register, 11 Mar. 2024
Today, there are only a handful of combatants vying for ground at the top end of the contemporary super-chalet pyramid, and that’s why the opening of Chalet Harmony in Méribel one month ago went off like a cannon blast.
—Tom Weijand, Robb Report, 15 Feb. 2024
Rory Smith, New York Times, 14 Mar. 2023
The cost per shot is cheap, as the ammunition is technically just electricity generated on the spot and not a missile or even cannon round built in a factory and shipped to the battlefield.
—Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 19 Mar. 2020
Jesse Lingard's toe-poke cannoned back out off the post...
—SI.com, 24 Oct. 2019
Up stepped Van Nistelrooy, but his effort cannoned off the bar.
—SI.com, 28 Sep. 2019
Stefano Sabelli let rip from range, but his shot cannoned off Ricardo Rodriguez and seemed destined to find its way into the back of the net.
—SI.com, 3 Sep. 2019
Pavel Florin gets backing from Shane Warne A race to be fit
Scans later showed no fracture to Smith's arm but the 92mph bouncer that cannoned into the Australian's neck turned out to have had a more lasting effect.
—Ben Morse, CNN, 19 Aug. 2019
His attempt cannoned off the post; England took a sigh of relief but there was plenty of work still to do.
—SI.com, 19 June 2019
Fragments can cannon about above the Earth’s atmosphere for centuries — striking other satellites, and adding their wreckage to the deadly debris fields.
—Jamie Seidel, Fox News, 16 Aug. 2018
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cannon.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Noun
Middle English canon, from Anglo-French, from Old Italian cannone, literally, large tube, augmentative of canna reed, tube, from Latin, cane, reed — more at cane
Noun
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Verb
1567, in the meaning defined at transitive sense
Phrases Containing cannon
Dictionary Entries Near cannon
Cite this Entry
“Cannon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cannon. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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More from Merriam-Webster on cannon
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for cannon
Nglish: Translation of cannon for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of cannon for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about cannon
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