cant
1
9.9
- noun
- /kænt/
- Jargon
:
jerga
- You paid your dues to feminist cant.
- cant phrases
Examples
-
It is full of cant phrases like "caring" and pseudo-scientific terms for human relations, such as "bonding."
Academic text (1990) -
The capital buzzed with commerce, the cant of merchants, and the whine of beggars pleading for leftovers from sacrificial offerings at the cemeteries.
Fiction book (1996) -
Lord Byron wrote more cant of this sort than any poet I know of.
Academic text (2016) -
Language has lost its meaning in the universal cant; representative government is really misrepresentative.
Academic text (2001) -
Peace has prevailed between them since Kerekou civilianized his regime and quietly dropped his socialist cant.
Academic text (1990) -
CLAGS often deploys its own special cant of "inclusivity," to all intents and purposes a code word for affirmative action.
Academic text (1995) -
Strong action is needed to protect "thoughtless" readers absorbed by the "cant of sensibility" because they lack the independence of mind supported by clear principles and a well-developed reasoning capacity.
Academic text (2010) -
At meetings of the board of the textile mill in which Joe held shares, or at banks and clubs in Charleston, he still heard a lot of cant about the blissful antebellum days.
Fiction book (1993) -
Many politicians use the cant of democracy to mask their true intentions.
-
The activists spoke in a cant that only their followers understood, leaving outsiders confused.
Synonyms
49
7.9
Informal words used by a group and not for formal situations
43
7.2
Words used by a group or job that others cannot understand
36
7.8
Words and phrases a group uses that people outside it do not understand
1
9.8
Language that is hard to understand because it uses many difficult words or nonsense
1
9.9
A special way of speaking used by a group so outsiders cannot understand
1
9.9
Language that uses many informal words people outside a group may not understand
Language full of long hard words used to seem clever
Antonyms
Idioms
Compounds
How Specialized
- Jargon
1
9.9
- Jargon
1
9.9
- Specialized
58
5.6
43
7.2
- Informal
7
6.5
Surface Forms
Etymology
Cant for a group's special language comes from an old use meaning 'talk' and was used for thieves' or secret groups' speech, so today cant means the jargon people use to hide meaning from outsiders.