cannon
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A big, heavy gun, often on wheels, used in old wars.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kanuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkænən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
militarychiefly aviation
An autocannon.
A large artillery gun that is usually on wheels
“The ancient fortress displayed a huge cannon near its main entrance.”
A complete assembly, consisting of an artillery tube and a breech mechanism, firing mechanism or base cap, which is a component of a gun, howitzer or mortar, which may include muzzle appendages.
Any similar device for shooting material out of a tube.
A bone of a horse's leg, between the fetlock joint and the knee or hock.
usslang
A pickpocket.
verb
To fire something, especially spherical, rapidly.
To collide or strike violently, especially so as to glance off or rebound.
To bombard with cannons.
Fire a cannon
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A large artillery gun that is usually on wheels
Used this way, cannon is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a military use: it belongs to service and operational language.
“The ancient fortress displayed a huge cannon near its main entrance.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Military
- Historical writing
- News/reporting
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use cannon
- “The old cannon stood as a historic monument in the park.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A large firecracker.
Fire delivered by artillery.
Soldiers who are regarded as expendable in the face of artillery fire.
A solid projectile that in former times was fired from a cannon.
Greatly developed metatarsal or metacarpal bone in the shank or cannon part of the leg in hoofed mammals.
A person who is expected to perform a particular task but who is out of control and dangerous.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A solid projectile that in former times was fired from a cannon.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.