Cant Meaning
/kænt/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.
nounA private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.
Sentence Examples
Gay people in Britain used to speak a cant called Polari.
Ganovim-loshn was a Yiddish thieves' cant.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The thieves communicated in secret ____ to avoid police detection.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I ____ believe how fast the summer has passed by this whole year city.
Word Origin & History
From Latin cantō, probably via Old Northern French canter (“sing, tell”). Doublet of chant.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I am aware that the phrase free inquiry has become too much a cant phrase soiled by the handling of the ignorant and the reckless by those who fall into the mistake of supposing that religion has its root in the understanding and by those who can see just far enough to doubt and no further."
— 1836, Three discourses preached before the Congregational Society in Watertown, page 65
"He is too well grounded for all your philoſophical Cant to hurt."
— 1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing Such Very Deep and Grave Matters, that Some Readers, Perhaps, May Not Relish It”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 23:
"Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world,—though the cant of hypocrites may be the worſt,—the cant of criticiſm is the moſt tormenting!"
— 1761, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XII, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume III, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 60:
"... he knew very well that if they thought him clever they were being taken in, but it pleased him to have been able to take them in, and he tried to do so still further; he was therefore a good deal on the look-out for cants that he could catch and apply in season, and might have done himself some mischief thus if he had not been ready to throw over any cant as soon as he had come across another more nearly to his fancy ..."
— 1903, Samuel Butler, chapter 46, in The Way of All Flesh:
"The German population as a whole had been fed 12 years of Nazi propaganda, including demonizing and dehumanizing cant about homosexual men and women."
— 2004 October 14, Leslie Feinberg, “Anti-gay terror in Nazi Germany”, in Workers World:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The thieves communicated in secret ____ to avoid police detection.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I ____ believe how fast the summer has passed by this whole year city.