Cain't

//keɪnt// contraction

contraction ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Contraction
  1. 1
    Nonstandard form of can't. Southern-US, alt-of, contraction, nonstandard

    "Stands to reason, the Mexican government, they cain’t persuade any real Mexican priests to travel all the way to Texas. Those hanker after the fleshpots of the big city. So the oney priests they can get to work in land s’far away are Irishmen who cain’t make no livin’ in Ireland, and who cain’t speak a word of Spanish neither, if’n you ask me."

Synonyms

All synonyms
cannotcannot

Example

More examples

"Girl, you know I cain't go there. I owe her money!"

Etymology

A variant spelling of can't, representing the pronunciation of this word in the southern United States.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.