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Cannot vs Dont - What's the difference?

cannot | dont |

As a verb cannot

is can not (am/is/are unable to).

As a noun cannot

is something that cannot be done.

As a contraction dont is

alternative form of don't|lang=en.

cannot

English

Verb

(head)
  • not (am/is/are unable to).
  • Am/are/is forbidden or not permitted to
  • * 1668 December 19, , “Mr.'' Alexander Seaton ''contra'' Menzies” in ''The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575
    • The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Di?charge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extingui?h the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and con?equently of all the re?t, they being all correi debendi , lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Di?charged as to one, and ?tand as to all the re?t.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Karen McVeigh
    • , volume=189, issue=2, page=10, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= US rules human genes can't be patented , passage=The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.}}
    Usage notes
    Both the one-word form cannot' and the two-word form '''can not''' are acceptable, but '''cannot''' is more common (in the , three times as common). The two-word form is better only in a construction in which '''not is part of a set phrase, such as 'not only... but (also)': ''Paul can not only sing well, but also paint brilliantly .

    Synonyms

    * can't

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something that cannot be done.
    • the cans and cannots

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * English auxiliary verb forms ----

    dont

    English

    Contraction

    (head)
  • (informal, nonstandard)
    • ----