Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or required by canon law.
  • adjective Of or appearing in the biblical canon.
  • adjective Conforming to orthodox or well-established rules or patterns, as of procedure.
  • adjective Of or belonging to a cathedral chapter.
  • adjective Of or relating to a literary canon.
  • adjective Music Having the form of a canon.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of the nature of or constituting a canon or rule; accepted as a norm or rule: as, canonical writings.
  • Forming a part of the sacred canon. See canon, 3.
  • Conformed or conforming to rule; fixed or determined by rule; specifically, regulated by or in accordance with the canons of the church; authorized: as, canonical age; canonical hours.
  • [Cf. ML. canonicæ vestes, canonicals.] The dress or habit prescribed by canon to be worn by the clergy when they officiate; hence, the prescribed official costume or decoration of any functionary, as, in English usage, the pouch on the gown of an M.D., the coif of a serjeant-at-law, the lambskin on the hood of a B. A., the strings of an Oxford undergraduate, the tippet on a barrister's gown, proctors' and subproctors' tippets, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Present in a canon, religious or otherwise.
  • adjective According to recognised or orthodox rules.
  • adjective Stated or used in the most basic and straightforwardly applicable manner.
  • adjective Prototypical.
  • adjective religion In conformity with canon law.
  • adjective music In the form of a canon.
  • adjective religion Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical chapter
  • adjective mathematics, computing In canonical form.
  • noun Roman Catholicism The formal robes of a priest

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective appearing in a biblical canon
  • adjective of or relating to or required by canon law
  • adjective conforming to orthodox or recognized rules
  • adjective reduced to the simplest and most significant form possible without loss of generality

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

canon +‎ -ical

Support

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Examples

  • Let us call a canonical set of properties and relations of the parts which may or may not determine the properties and relations of the whole the supervenience basis.

    Holism and Nonseparability in Physics Healey, Richard 2008

  • Those listening are often left speechless, because no such support exists within canonical Islamic texts.

    The Show-Me Sheikh 2005

  • Those listening are often left speechless, because no such support exists within canonical Islamic texts.

    The Show-Me Sheikh 2005

  • Those listening are often left speechless, because no such support exists within canonical Islamic texts.

    The Show-Me Sheikh 2005

  • One exception, already canonical, is the photograph of the man made to stand on a box, hooded and sprouting wires, reportedly told he would be electrocuted if he fell off.

    Boing Boing: May 23, 2004 - May 29, 2004 Archives 2004

  • I like rev = "canonical" - 0xDECAFBAD (tags: rev canonical url shorter discussion interesting) [...]

    0xDECAFBAD l.m.orchard 2010

  • I like rev = "canonical" - 0xDECAFBAD (tags: rev canonical url shorter discussion interesting) [...]

    0xDECAFBAD l.m.orchard 2010

  • [8] Which were these twenty-two sacred books of the Old Testament, see the Supplement to the Essay of the Old Testament, p. 25-29, viz. those we call canonical, all excepting the Canticles; but still with this further exception, that the book of apocryphal Esdras be taken into that number instead of our canonical Ezra, which seems to be no more than a later epitome of the other; which two books of Canticles and Ezra it no way appears that our Josephus ever saw.

    Against Apion Flavius Josephus 1709

  • (Luke and Acts were somehow separated in the textual drift we call the canonical process), which simply does not do enough work in light of the differences in the reception histories of the two texts; such reasons are much harder to come by than is typically thought; (c) Scholars who persist in identifying modern reconstructed readings of Luke-Acts with ancient hermeneutical reading strategies have likely not grasped the way in which the NT authors, early Apologists or Church Fathers actually worked with scripture and have, therefore, distorted hermeneutically the historical worth of their reconstructions.

    Euangelion 2009

  • "remix" is the keyword canonical forces you to use if you want to use Ubuntu trademark tacone thou salt not use Ubuntu or * buntu. schestowitz

    Boycott Novell - Recent changes [en] 2009

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