Canon vs cannon
Cannon, with two n's, is a big gun or a machine that shoots things out of a tube. Nearly every other meaning is canon, with one n, like the accepted works of a field, a rule, or a piece of music.
The big gun gets the bigger spelling: cannon has two n's.
canon noun
The works accepted as important or official in a field or a fictional world, or a widely accepted rule.
- Critics have argued for decades over which novels belong in the canon.
- Fans do not count the old comics as part of the canon.
cannon noun
A large, heavy gun, or a machine that shoots something like water or confetti out of a tube.
- The pirates rolled a cannon to the rail and fired on the ship.
- Police brought in a water cannon to clear the square.
Watch out
- Canon and cannon sound exactly the same, so only the spelling and the meaning tell them apart.
- Church words use canon with one n. A canon is a church law or a member of the clergy at a cathedral.Under canon law, the case went to a church court.
- Cannon can also be a verb, used mainly in British English, that means to crash hard into something, often bouncing off it.He rounded the corner and cannoned into a waiter carrying a tray.
Test yourself
A rusty old blank still points out to sea from the fort.
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cannon. It is a big gun, so it needs two n's.
Fans argue about whether the new movie counts as blank.
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canon. This is about the official story of a fictional world.
Her design broke every blank of classical architecture.
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canon. Here the word means an accepted rule.
The crowd cheered when the confetti blank went off.
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cannon. It is a machine that shoots confetti out of a tube.