What does "canvas" mean?
A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp, useful for making sails and tents or as a surface for paintings.
Canvas
/ˈkænvəs/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp, useful for making sails and tents or as a surface for paintings.
- Grammar: canvas is listed as noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: agora, air brush, amphitheater, aquarelle.
- Useful contrasts: constraint, image element, paint palette.
- Usage evidence: This world is but canvas to our imaginations.
How to use "canvas"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "canvas" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "canvas" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "canvas" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "canvas" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "canvas" is acting as noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "agora" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "canvas", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp, useful for making sails and tents or as a surface for paintings.
"The term canvas is very widely used, as well to denote the coarse fabrics employed for kitchen use, as for strainers, and wraps for meat, as for the best quality of ordinary table and shirting linen."
- 2 Obsolete spelling of canvass. alt-of, obsolete
"[…] I haue learned this faſhion of Sᵗ. Hierome the Oracle of Antiquitie, vvho vvas vvont to entertaine his Paula, and Euſtochium, Marcella, Principia, Hedibia, and other deuout Ladies, vvith learned canuaſes of the deep pointes of Diuinity."
- 3 a heavy, closely woven fabric wordnet
- 4 A piece of canvas cloth stretched across a frame on which one may paint.
- 5 the mat that forms the floor of the ring in which boxers or professional wrestlers compete wordnet
Show 11 more definitions
- 6 A mesh of loosely woven cotton strands or molded plastic to be decorated with needlepoint, cross-stitch, rug hooking, or other crafts.
- 7 an oil painting on canvas fabric wordnet
- 8 A basis for creative work. figuratively
"The author takes rural midwestern life as a canvas for a series of tightly woven character studies"
- 9 a tent made of canvas fabric wordnet
- 10 A region on which graphics can be rendered.
- 11 a large piece of fabric (usually canvas fabric) by means of which wind is used to propel a sailing vessel wordnet
- 12 Sails in general.
"The double desire of being able to overtake a weaker flying enemy, or to escape when pursued by a stronger, has induced the owners to overmast their cruisers, and to spread too much canvass; and the great number of men, many of them not seamen, who being upon deck when a ship heels suddenly are huddled down to leeward, and increase by their weight the effect of the wind."
- 13 the setting for a narrative or fictional or dramatic account wordnet
- 14 A tent.
"He spent the night under canvas."
- 15 A rough draft or model of a song, air, or other literary or musical composition; especially one to show a poet the measure of the verses he is to make.
- 16 Athletic shoes. Nigeria
Verb
- 1 To cover (an area or object) with canvas. transitive
- 2 Obsolete spelling of canvass. alt-of, obsolete
"And with the aunſwere here vpon eftſoones in hand they go, / The doubtfull wordes wherof they ſcan and canuas to and fro."
- 3 cover with canvas wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
Example
"This world is but canvas to our imaginations."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "canvas"?
Common synonyms include: agora, air brush, amphitheater, aquarelle, arena, arena.
How do you use "canvas" in a sentence?
This world is but canvas to our imaginations.
How do you pronounce "canvas"?
Pronounced /ˈkænvəs/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English canevas, from Anglo-Norman, from Old Northern French canevas (compare Old French chanevas, chenevas) from a root derived from Latin cannabis, from Ancient Greek κάνναβις (kánnabis). Compare French canevas, resulting from a blend of the Old French and a Picard dialect word, itself from Old Northern French. Doublet of cannabis and hemp.
Etymology 2
A variant of canvass.