canonical

[ kuh-non-i-kuhl ]

adjective

1. relating to, established by, or conforming to a canon or canons
2. included in the canon of the Bible.
3. authorized; recognized; accepted:

   canonical works.

4. Mathematics. (of an equation, coordinate, etc.) in simplest or standard form.
5. following the pattern of a musical canon.
6. Linguistics. (of a form or pattern) characteristic, general or basic:

   the canonical form of the past tense;

   a canonical syllable pattern.

noun

1. canonicals, garments prescribed by canon law for clergy when officiating.

canonical

/ kəˈnɒnɪkəl /

adjective

1. belonging to or included in a canon of sacred or other officially recognized writings
2. belonging to or in conformity with canon law
3. according to recognized law; accepted
4. music in the form of a canon
5. of or relating to a cathedral chapter
6. of or relating to a canon (clergyman)

Derived Forms

• caˈnonically, adverb

Other Words From

• ca·noni·cal·ly adverb
• super·ca·noni·cal adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of canonical¹

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin canōnicālis, equivalent to canōnic(us) ( canon ² ) + -ālis -al ¹

Example Sentences

You can then implement 301 redirects, canonical or noindex tags on the pages that have become redundant to consolidate ranking signals.

From Search Engine Land

When content migration is done, Google has to recrawl new URLs, along with all of their accompanying signals, such as backlinks and canonicals, in order to rank what effectively becomes brand new landing pages.

From Search Engine Land

“You do not need to create separate content for each canonical or stemming version of a word unless it shifts the meaning of the word substantially,” Christi said.

From Search Engine Land

Also both show the canonical URL, but Google shows the Google selected canonical versus the user-declared canonical.

From Search Engine Land

In addition, use title tags, meta description tags, header tags, customized URLs, and canonical tags to master the art of on-page SEO.

From Search Engine Watch

According to Haselberger, the archdiocese ignored not only blatant secular crimes, but obvious canonical crimes as well.

From The Daily Beast

“This is not a judgment of guilt, nor is it a suspension of any other canonical penalty,” Canary wrote.

From The Daily Beast

We can see evidence of its presence even in the communities of the authors who produced our canonical Gospels.

From The Daily Beast

I write as much out of identifying with those books as I do with the frontline canonical stuff.

From The Daily Beast

Lots of things that now seem canonical would not have been accessible to Leonardo, who was not that proficient in Latin.

From The Daily Beast

We cannot wonder at the difficulty of obtaining canonical election for Loftus.

From Project Gutenberg

But all the commentators were united against any such course; and the canonical text authorized the rendering to which I objected.

From Project Gutenberg

Whether beneficed students on account of their studies are excused from reading their canonical hours.

From Project Gutenberg

Fashion is always irresistible when there is no law to the contrary, and canonical hours are ignored in this country.

From Project Gutenberg

The renewed energy of the church was manifested by councils, canonical legislation and books of sermons.

From Project Gutenberg