How to say "canon" in Japanese
Choosing the right word
- nounThe katakana borrowing of 'canon', used for the Western senses of the word — above all the musical form, as in the famous Pachelbel piece — with a distinctly foreign ring.
- 正典せいてんnounThe term for an authoritative, definitive collection of sacred writings — the Biblical canon; at home in religious and scholarly discussion of which books count as scripture.
- nounCanon, the camera and office-equipment company; the corporation itself writes its name キヤノン with a full-size ヤ, so this small-ゃ rendering is a variant of the official spelling.
- nounThe spelling the company itself uses: Canon, the maker of cameras and office equipment; with its full-size ヤ this is the form to choose for the corporation's official name.
- 教典きょうてんnounA faith's scriptures or an authoritative text of its teachings — 'canon' in only a loose sense; it can also mean a teaching guide, and is seldom the word for the Biblical canon.
Use 「カノン」 for the borrowed Western sense (as in music), 正典 for the scriptural canon, 「キャノン」 or 「キヤノン」 for the company Canon — 「キヤノン」 being its own spelling — and 教典 chiefly for scriptures.
Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only
Japanese equivalents
This browser can't play pronunciations (needs Safari 18.4 or later, or Chrome / Edge / Firefox).
