canonical Definition
ca·noni·cal (kə nän′i kəl)
adjective
- of, according to, or ordered by church canon
- authoritative; accepted
- belonging to the canon of the Bible
- of a canon (clergyman)
Etymology: ME < ML(Ec) canonicalis
canonical Related Forms
ca·non′i·cally adverb
canonical Synonyms
canonical
modif.
canonical Usage Examples
Modifying Another Word
- not: The answers put forth here most definitely are not canonical.
- almost: These monastic manuals and compendiums of knowledge came to dominate the intellectual life of monastic institutions and gained an almost canonical status.
- even: Yet for anyone versed in post-war British politics, The Future of Socialism is a vintage, even canonical text.
- therefore: Our witness there must be spiritual, only thus is our help positive and therefore canonical.
Modifies a noun
- variate: This method of interpreting canonical variates is identical to the manner in which factors are interpreted in factor analysis.
- obedience: Over more than 60 years I have heard many clergy swear their oath of canonical obedience.
- gospel: For these reasons the four canonical gospels are not reliable.
- scripture: There is no support in the canonical scriptures for these assertions.
- ensemble: Similar behavior is seen for the Landau free energy in the canonical ensemble.
- correlation: The problem of extracting factor scores; canonical correlations.
Used with adjective complement
- consider: In the context of the Berkeley students who worked on BSD, Evi's comments are considered canonical.
- call: We can, however, express such limitations as recommendations, in which case a representation satisfying them is called canonical.
- become: Once a single more or less coherent narrative is achieved, it can become canonical.
- accept: In Carthage 1 Peter was known, and soon accepted as canonical.
- use: Where a serial is unambiguously known by a mnemonic form, that form must be used as canonical in place of the ISSN.
Preposition: in
sense: There were not three successive stages at which these three collections of books were in turn recognized as canonical in the technical sense.
Browse dictionary entries near canonical
- ‹ canonic
- ‹ canoness
- ‹ canon regular
- ‹ canon law
- ‹ canon
- ‹ canola (oil)
- ‹ canola
- ‹ canoe
- ‹ canny
- ‹ cannular
- canonical hour ›
- canonicals ›
- canonicate ›
- canonicity ›
- canonist ›
- canonize ›
- canonry ›
- canoodle ›
- canopic urn ›
- Canopus ›

