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📜 Officially accepted 🌐 Preferred webpage ✅ Standard or orthodox 🔢 Simplest form
canonical

canonical

8 8.1
Officially accepted as a true and important religious text
  • adjective
  • /kəˈnænɪkəl/
: canónico
  • Is this reason enough to engage in traditional religious practices and to meditate on canonical religious books?
  • canonical texts
  • canonical books
  • canonical status

So the the real canonical example is Sherlock Holmes.

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Examples

  • Tradition, magisterial pronouncements, and canonical writings provide the generally accepted instances of genuinely Christian speech.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Such papal declarations found their way into canonical collections of the Middle Ages.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?

    Conclave (2024)

  • When Rudolf describes Leoba's function as teacher, he uses official, even canonical, terms to identify her position.

    Academic text (2002)

  • In her now canonical article, Ordez expressed the idea of the house as metafiction.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Canonists disagree, by the way, about whether the Church should grant canonical recognition to civil annulments.

    Blog text (9)

  • So that's why you're reading list your reading for today had some canonical material, the letters of Ignatius.

  • Conversion often occurs for individually pragmatic reasons, but canonical elements of doctrine are later called upon as a justification.

    Academic text (2001)

  • In striking contrast to Hawthorne's lasting canonical status, Melville had suffered a painful exclusion.

    Academic text (2004)

  • The church recognized the canonical texts as the official scripture for its followers.

Synonyms

definitive
vscanonical
  • Formal
16 6.1

A book or study that is the most complete and respected on a subject

is official recognition by authorities not just the best single work
canonized
vscanonical
  • Formal
1 8.8

People treat something as officially important and the accepted standard

is officially recognized as genuine authority not only declared sacred
canonic
vscanonical
1 8.0

Following accepted rules or standards, like classic works that define a style

is officially accepted as genuine authority rather than merely rule following

Antonyms

unauthorized
  • US
106 4.5

Not officially allowed to do something

illegitimate
  • Formal
33 6.1

Not allowed by law

Compounds

canonical hour
  • Formal
1 9.9

One of seven fixed times for prayer during the day in the Roman Catholic Church

How Canonical

authoritative
37 5.8
canonical
8 8.1
canonic
9.3
apocryphal
6 8.9

Surface Forms

canonical positive

Morphology

canonical = canon (transparent) = canon + ical

The adjective is a regular formation from the noun 'canon' with the productive suffix '-ical' meaning 'relating to' or 'according to'.

Etymology

Canonical comes from an old Greek word kanon, a 'measuring rod' or 'rule'. The same root gives us canon, the list of books a church accepts, so canonical texts are those 'in the rule' and officially accepted.