GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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1.       
    canonic (kȧ‑nŏnˈĭk), canonical (kȧ‑nŏnˈĭ‑kal),  a. [L. canonicus, LL. canonicalis, fr. L. canon: cf. F. canonique. See canon.] Of or pertaining to a canon; established by, or according to, a canon or canons.  “The oath of canonical obedience.”  Hallam.
   
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   2. Appearing in a Biblical canon; as, “a canonical book of the Christian New Testament”.
   
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   3. Accepted as authoritative; recognized.
   
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   4. (Math.) In its standard form, usually also the simplest form; -- of an equation or coordinate.
   
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   5. (Linguistics) Reduced to the simplest and most significant form possible without loss of generality; as, “a canonical syllable pattern”.  Opposite of nonstandard.
   
   Syn. -- standard.
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   6. Pertaining to or resembling a musical canon.
   
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   Canonical books, or Canonical Scriptures, those books which are declared by the canons of the church to be of divine inspiration; -- called collectively the canon. The Roman Catholic Church holds as canonical several books which Protestants reject as apocryphal. -- Canonical epistles, an appellation given to the epistles called also general or catholic. See Catholic epistles, under Canholic. -- Canonical form (Math.), the simples or most symmetrical form to which all functions of the same class can be reduced without lose of generality. -- Canonical hours, certain stated times of the day, fixed by ecclesiastical laws, and appropriated to the offices of prayer and devotion; also, certain portions of the Breviary, to be used at stated hours of the day. In England, this name is also given to the hours from 8 a. m. to 3 p. m. (formerly 8 a. m. to 12 m.) before and after which marriage can not be legally performed in any parish church. -- Canonical letters, letters of several kinds, formerly given by a bishop
   to traveling clergymen or laymen, to show that they were entitled to receive the communion, and to distinguish them from heretics. -- Canonical life, the method or rule of living prescribed by the ancient clergy who lived in community; a course of living prescribed for the clergy, less rigid than the monastic, and more restrained that the secular. -- Canonical obedience, submission to the canons of a church, especially the submission of the inferior clergy to their bishops, and of other religious orders to their superiors. -- Canonical punishments, such as the church may inflict, as excommunication, degradation, penance, etc. -- Canonical sins (Anc. Church.), those for which capital punishment or public penance decreed by the canon was inflicted, as idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy.
   
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