canon
/KAN-ən/noun · adjective
Meaning
In discussions of books, movies, television, games, comics, and other fictional media, canon refers to the material officially accepted as part of a story’s continuity. It can mean the approved body of works, a specific event or detail established by those works, or, informally, something that is canon because it belongs to the official story.[1][2][3]
- 1. The officially accepted body of stories, works, or continuity belonging to a fictional universe.
- 2. A character, relationship, event, detail, or rule that is established as true within that universe.
- 3. Used as an adjective in phrases such as canon character or canon relationship to mean officially part of the story.
Examples
“That episode is canon, so the villain's backstory really happened.”
“The game is canon to the main timeline.”
“Their relationship is canon now and the fandom is losing it.”
“The novel has great ideas, but it isn't canon.”
“Headcanon is fun, but canon gets the final word.”
Origin and spread
Canon comes from Greek kanōn, meaning a rule, measuring stick, or standard, through Latin and Old French into English. Its older English meanings included an authoritative list of religious books and the accepted works of a writer. The fictional-universe sense is a later extension of that idea of approved or authoritative material. It was circulating in early twentieth-century literary and fan discussions, though claims about one person or community definitively coining the modern sense remain disputed. By the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, publishers and franchise owners were using canon to distinguish official continuity from discarded, alternate, or fan-created material. In current fandom usage, canon can also be revised by a reboot, retcon, or change in a franchise's continuity policy.
How to use it
Canon is informal in fandom discussions but is also common in professional writing about franchises and narrative continuity. It does not necessarily mean that every fan accepts a detail; it means that the relevant creator, rights holder, or established source treats it as part of the official story. Canon is often contrasted with non-canon, fanon, and headcanon. Because different versions of a franchise may have separate timelines, specify which continuity you mean when the status is disputed.
Sources
- 1. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary — canon nounSupports: meaning, form.
- 2. StarWars.com — The Legendary Star Wars Expanded Universe Turns a New PageSupports: meaning.
- 3. StarWars.com — A New Dawn for Star Wars StorytellingSupports: meaning.
