cant

CEFRC2

/kænt/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    Cannot; an informal shortened form of cannot.

  2. 02

    noun

    Insincere language used to sound moral or impressive.

Examples

  • Gay people in Britain used to speak a cant called Polari.

  • Ganovim-loshn was a Yiddish thieves' cant.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. A language spoken by some Irish Travellers; Shelta.

  2. A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.

More examples

In context

  • He had the look of a prince, but the cant of a fishmonger.

  • under the cant of a hill

  • It is not only of great service in keeping the boat in her due position on the sea, but also in creating a tendency immediately to recover from any sudden cant, or lurch, from a heavy wave; and it is besides beneficial in diminishing the violence of beating a...

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The thieves communicated in secret blank to avoid police detection.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Latin cantō, probably via Old Northern French canter (“sing, tell”). Doublet of chant.