The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Canon \Ca*[~n]on"\ (k[aum]*ny[-o]n"; anglicized k[a^]n"y[u^]n),
   n. [Sp., a tube or hollow, fr. ca[~n]a reed, fr. L. canna.
   See Cane.]
   A deep gorge, ravine, or gulch, between high and steep banks,
   worn by water courses. [Mexico & Western U. S.] [Also spelled
   canyon.]
   [1913 Webster +PJC]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

canon \can"on\ (k[a^]n"[u^]n), n. [OE. canon, canoun, AS. canon
   rule (cf. F. canon, LL. canon, and, for sense 7, F. chanoine,
   LL. canonicus), fr. L. canon a measuring line, rule, model,
   fr. Gr. kanw`n rule, rod, fr. ka`nh, ka`nnh, reed. See
   Cane, and cf. Canonical.]
   1. A law or rule.
      [1913 Webster]

            Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
            His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.     --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Eccl.) A law, or rule of doctrine or discipline, enacted
      by a council and confirmed by the pope or the sovereign; a
      decision, regulation, code, or constitution made by
      ecclesiastical authority.
      [1913 Webster]

            Various canons which were made in councils held in
            the second centry.                    --Hook.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. The collection of books received as genuine Holy
      Scriptures, called the sacred canon, or general rule of
      moral and religious duty, given by inspiration; the Bible;
      also, any one of the canonical Scriptures. See Canonical
      books, under Canonical, a.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. In monasteries, a book containing the rules of a religious
      order.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. A catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the
      Roman Catholic Church.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. A member of a cathedral chapter; a person who possesses a
      prebend in a cathedral or collegiate church.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. (Mus.) A musical composition in which the voices begin one
      after another, at regular intervals, successively taking
      up the same subject. It either winds up with a coda
      (tailpiece), or, as each voice finishes, commences anew,
      thus forming a perpetual fugue or round. It is the
      strictest form of imitation. See Imitation.
      [1913 Webster]

   8. (Print.) The largest size of type having a specific name;
      -- so called from having been used for printing the canons
      of the church.
      [1913 Webster]

   9. The part of a bell by which it is suspended; -- called
      also ear and shank.

   Note: [See Illust. of Bell.] --Knight.
         [1913 Webster]

   10. (Billiards) See Carom.
       [1913 Webster]

   Apostolical canons. See under Apostolical.

   Augustinian canons, Black canons. See under
      Augustinian.

   Canon capitular, Canon residentiary, a resident member of
      a cathedral chapter (during a part or the whole of the
      year).

   Canon law. See under Law.

   Canon of the Mass (R. C. Ch.), that part of the mass,
      following the Sanctus, which never changes.

   Honorary canon, a canon[6] who neither lived in a
      monastery, nor kept the canonical hours.

   Minor canon (Ch. of Eng.), one who has been admitted to a
      chapter, but has not yet received a prebend.

   Regular canon (R. C. Ch.), one who lived in a conventual
      community and followed the rule of St. Austin; a Black
      canon.

   Secular canon (R. C. Ch.), one who did not live in a
      monastery, but kept the hours.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

canon
    n 1: a rule or especially body of rules or principles generally
         established as valid and fundamental in a field or art or
         philosophy; "the neoclassical canon"; "canons of polite
         society"
    2: a priest who is a member of a cathedral chapter
    3: a ravine formed by a river in an area with little rainfall
       [syn: canyon, canon]
    4: a contrapuntal piece of music in which a melody in one part
       is imitated exactly in other parts
    5: a complete list of saints that have been recognized by the
       Roman Catholic Church
    6: a collection of books accepted as holy scripture especially
       the books of the Bible recognized by any Christian church as
       genuine and inspired

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

189 Moby Thesaurus words for "canon":
   Bible, Douay Bible, Festschrift, Grand Penitentiary, Holy Father,
   Holy Scripture, Holy Writ, King James Version, Procrustean law,
   Revised Standard Version, Revised Version, Scripture, Sefer Torah,
   Septuagint, Testament, Torah, Torah scroll, Virginal, Vulgate,
   a belief, abuna, act, album, ana, analects, anthology, antipope,
   archbishop, archdeacon, archpriest, article of faith, assize,
   axiom, barometer, beauties, bill, bishop, bishop coadjutor,
   breviary, bylaw, cardinal, cardinal bishop, cardinal deacon,
   cardinal priest, catch, chaplain, check, chrestomathy, church book,
   coadjutor, code, collectanea, collected works, collection,
   commandment, compilation, complete works, convention, criterion,
   curate, dean, decree, decretum, degree, delectus, dictate,
   dictation, dictum, diocesan, doctrine, dogma, ecclesiarch, edict,
   enactment, euchologion, euchology, exarch, farse, florilegium,
   flowers, form, formality, formula, formulary, fugato, fugue,
   garden, garland, gauge, general principle, golden rule,
   graduated scale, guideline, guiding principle, hierarch,
   high priest, imperative, institution, jus, law, law of nature,
   lectionary, legislation, lex, litany, machzor, manual, maxim,
   measure, metropolitan, miscellanea, miscellany, missal, mitzvah,
   model, moral, norm, norma, omnibus, order of nature, ordinal,
   ordinance, ordonnance, papa, parameter, patriarch, pattern,
   penitentiary, photograph album, pontiff, pontifical, pope,
   prayer book, prebendary, precept, prelate, prescribed form,
   prescript, prescription, primate, principium, principle, quantity,
   quotation book, reading, readout, rector, regulation, ritual,
   rituale, rondeau, rondelet, rondino, rondo, rondoletto, round,
   roundelay, rubric, rule, ruling, rural dean, scale, scrapbook,
   service book, set form, settled principle, siddur, standard,
   standing order, statute, subdean, suffragan, symposium, teaching,
   tenet, test, the Book, the Good Book, the Scriptures, the Word,
   touchstone, troll, type, universal law, value, vicar,
   working principle, working rule, yardstick



Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

28 Moby Thesaurus words for "Canon":
   Agnus Dei, Alleluia, Anamnesis, Blessing, Collect, Communion,
   Consecration, Credo, Dismissal, Epistle, Fraction, Gloria, Gospel,
   Gradual, Introit, Kyrie, Kyrie Eleison, Last Gospel, Lavabo,
   Offertory, Paternoster, Pax, Post-Communion, Preface, Sanctus,
   Secreta, Tersanctus, Tract



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Canon
   This word is derived from a Hebrew and Greek word denoting a
   reed or cane. Hence it means something straight, or something to
   keep straight; and hence also a rule, or something ruled or
   measured. It came to be applied to the Scriptures, to denote
   that they contained the authoritative rule of faith and
   practice, the standard of doctrine and duty. A book is said to
   be of canonical authority when it has a right to take a place
   with the other books which contain a revelation of the Divine
   will. Such a right does not arise from any ecclesiastical
   authority, but from the evidence of the inspired authorship of
   the book. The canonical (i.e., the inspired) books of the Old
   and New Testaments, are a complete rule, and the only rule, of
   faith and practice. They contain the whole supernatural
   revelation of God to men. The New Testament Canon was formed
   gradually under divine guidance. The different books as they
   were written came into the possession of the Christian
   associations which began to be formed soon after the day of
   Pentecost; and thus slowly the canon increased till all the
   books were gathered together into one collection containing the
   whole of the twenty-seven New Testament inspired books.
   Historical evidence shows that from about the middle of the
   second century this New Testament collection was substantially
   such as we now possess. Each book contained in it is proved to
   have, on its own ground, a right to its place; and thus the
   whole is of divine authority.

     The Old Testament Canon is witnessed to by the New Testament
   writers. Their evidence is conclusive. The quotations in the New
   from the Old are very numerous, and the references are much more
   numerous. These quotations and references by our Lord and the
   apostles most clearly imply the existence at that time of a
   well-known and publicly acknowledged collection of Hebrew
   writings under the designation of "The Scriptures;" "The Law and
   the Prophets and the Psalms;" "Moses and the Prophets," etc. The
   appeals to these books, moreover, show that they were regarded
   as of divine authority, finally deciding all questions of which
   they treat; and that the whole collection so recognized
   consisted only of the thirty-nine books which we now posses.
   Thus they endorse as genuine and authentic the canon of the
   Jewish Scriptures. The Septuagint Version (q.v.) also contained
   every book we now have in the Old Testament Scriptures. As to
   the time at which the Old Testament canon was closed, there are
   many considerations which point to that of Ezra and Nehemiah,
   immediately after the return from Babylonian exile. (See BIBLE
   ¯T0000580, EZRA, QUOTATIONS.)


Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

CANON, eccl. law. This word is taken from the Greek, and signifies a rule or
law. In ecclesiastical law, it is also used to designate an order of
religious persons. Francis Duaren says, the reason why the ecclesiastics
called the rules they established canons or rules, (canones id est regulas)
and not laws, was modesty. They did not dare to call them (leges) laws, lest
they should seem to arrogate to themselves the authority of princes and
magistrates. De Sacris Ecclesiae Ministeriis, p. 2, in pref. See Law, Canon.



U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000):

Canon, GA -- U.S. city in Georgia
   Population (2000):    755
   Housing Units (2000): 361
   Land area (2000):     3.179511 sq. miles (8.234896 sq. km)
   Water area (2000):    0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
   Total area (2000):    3.179511 sq. miles (8.234896 sq. km)
   FIPS code:            12932
   Located within:       Georgia (GA), FIPS 13
   Location:             34.345576 N, 83.108741 W
   ZIP Codes (1990):     30520
   Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
   Headwords:
    Canon, GA
    Canon