Authoritative vs Canonical - What's the difference?
authoritative | canonical |
Arising or originating from a figure of authority
Highly accurate or definitive; treated or worthy of treatment as a scholarly authority
Having a commanding style.
Present in a canon, religious or otherwise.
According to recognised or orthodox rules.
Stated or used in the most basic and straightforwardly applicable manner.
Prototypical.
(religion) In conformity with canon law.
(music) In the form of a canon.
(religion) Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical chapter
(mathematics, computing) In canonical form.
(mathematics) Distinguished among entities of its kind, so that it can be picked out in a way that does not depend on any arbitrary choices.
(Roman Catholicism) The formal robes of a priest
* {{quote-book, year=1857, author=Various, title=The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 2, December, 1857, chapter=, edition=
, passage=He, good man, could make but little of his solitary friend, and must many a time have been startled out of his canonicals by the strange, alien speeches which he heard. }}
* {{quote-book, year=1915, author=, title=The Research Magnificent, chapter=, edition=
, passage=When I was a boy I was a passionate atheist, I defied God, and so far as God is the mere sanction of social traditions and pressures, a mere dressing up of the crowd's will in canonicals , I do still deny him and repudiate him. }}
* {{quote-book, year=1891, author=, title=The White Lady of Hazelwood, chapter=, edition=
, passage=Mr Altham rose, as in duty bound, in honour to a priest, and a priest who, as he dimly discerned by his canonicals , was not altogether a common one. }}
As adjectives the difference between authoritative and canonical
is that authoritative is arising or originating from a figure of authority while canonical is present in a canon, religious or otherwise.As a noun canonical is
(roman catholicism) the formal robes of a priest.authoritative
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- The authoritative rules in this school come not from the headmaster but from the aged matron.
- This book is the world's most authoritative guide to insect breeding habits.
- He instructed us in that booming, authoritative voice of his.
Synonyms
* (highly accurate) definitive; precise, proper * (from a position of authority) of recordDerived terms
* authoritatively * authoritativenesscanonical
English
(wikipedia canonical)Adjective
(en adjective)- The is a canonical New Testament book.
- The men played golf in the most canonical way, with no local rules.
- the reduction of a linear substitution to its canonical form
Synonyms
* (mathematics) naturalAntonyms
* (scripture) apocryphalDerived terms
* canonicallyNoun
(en noun)citation
citation
citation