Canon

Look up canon or canonical in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Not to be confused with Cannon.

Canon may refer to:

Religion

Various formally approved collections of scriptures, including:
- Biblical canon, among various Jewish and Christian communities
- Chinese Buddhist canon, used in East Asia
- Jewish Bible canon, another name for the Tanakh
- Pāli Canon, used in the Therevada Buddhist tradition
- Taoist canon (Daozang), about 1400 texts collected around the 4th century
- Tibetan Buddhist canon, a loosely defined list used in the Vajrayana tradition
Canon (hymnography), a kind of hymn in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Canon (priest), a title of certain Christian priests
Canons Regular, priests living in community under a rule
Canon of the Mass, the Eucharistic Prayer of the Roman Rite
Gospel canon, a work attempting to harmonize the accounts of the four Christian Gospels

Canon (canon law), a rule of conduct or belief prescribed by the Catholic Church
- Canon law, religious laws, particularly in Christian contexts
- Canonization, the formal process of recognizing a Christian saint
Canon law (Catholic Church)
- Penitential canons, the Catholic canon laws regarding certain penances to be done for certain sins

Canon (basic principle), a rule or a body of rules or principles generally established as valid and fundamental in a field of art or philosophy

Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base
Western canon, the books, music, and art that have been the most influential in shaping Western culture
- The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages, a 1994 book by Harold Bloom
Canon (manga), by Chika Shiomi
Canon of Dutch Literature, a list of the most important Dutch literary works
Canon of Eclipses, an 1887 compilation of eclipses by Theodor Ritter von Oppolzer
Canon of Kings, a dated list of kings used by ancient astronomers as a convenient means to date astronomical phenomena
Danish Culture Canon, a list of 108 works of cultural excellence
The Canon (Natalie Angier book), a science book by Natalie Angier
The Canon of Medicine, a medical text written by Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

Canon (music), a contrapuntal composition which employs a melody with one or more imitations
- Pachelbel's Canon, the name commonly given to a canon by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel

Film canon, the limited number of masterpieces by which all other films are judged
The Canon (podcast), a film podcast by Devin Faraci and Amy Nicholson
Canon (film), a 1964 Canadian animated short based on the canon musical form

Canon (game), an online browser-based strategy war game
Canon, Georgia, a city
Aesthetic canon, a rule for the proportions of a human figure
Canon, in bellfounding, one or more hanging loops cast integrally with the crown
Canon Yaoundé, a Cameroonian association football club