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canvas

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp, useful for making sails and tents or as a surface for paintings.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kanvuhs

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkænvəs

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp, useful for making sails and tents or as a surface for paintings.

  2. painting

    A piece of canvas cloth stretched across a frame on which one may paint.

  3. computer graphics

    A region on which graphics can be rendered.

  4. figuratively

    A basis for creative work.

  5. A mesh of loosely woven cotton strands or molded plastic to be decorated with needlepoint, cross-stitch, rug hooking, or other crafts.

  6. A rough draft or model of a song, air, or other literary or musical composition; especially one to show a poet the measure of the verses he is to make.

verb

  1. transitive

    To cover (an area or object) with canvas.

    “She canvassed the walls of her living room so as to conceal the ugly cracks.”

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp, useful for making sails and tents or as a surface for paintings.

Used this way, canvas is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • sail , a specialist term, precise but narrower
  • canvas tent , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use canvas

  • “The boxer picked himself up off the canvas.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Coarse / large

large canvaspainted canvasheavy canvas

Athletic

canvas shoes

Other combinations

blank canvascanvas bagwhite canvassmall canvas

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • canvas tentnounCompound term

    A tent made of canvas fabric.

  • press of canvasnounCompound term

    The greatest amount of sail that a ship can carry safely.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: type of coarse cloth or woven from hemp

canvass

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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.