1

a

**:**a regulation or dogma decreed by a church council

b

**:**a provision of canon law

2

[Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin, from Latin, model]

**:**the most solemn and unvarying part of the Mass including the consecration of the bread and wine3

[Middle English, from Late Latin, from Latin, standard]

a

**:**an authoritative list of books accepted as Holy Scripture

b

**:**the authentic works of a writer

the Chaucer canon

c

**:**a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works

the canon of great literature

4

a

**:**an accepted principle or rule

b

**:**a criterion or standard of judgment

the canons of good taste

c

**:**a body of principles, rules, standards, or norms

according to newspaper canon … a big story calls for a lot of copy—A. J. Liebling

5

[Late Greek

*kanōn*, from Greek, model]**:**a contrapuntal musical composition in which each successively entering voice presents the initial theme usually transformed in a strictly consistent way1

**:**a clergyman belonging to the chapter or the staff of a cathedral or collegiate church

2

ca·ñon

less common spelling of canyon

1

**:**a deep narrow valley with steep sides and often with a stream flowing through it

2

**:**something resembling a canyon

the city's concrete canyons

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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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