canonical form

English

Noun

canonical form (plural canonical forms)

1. (mathematics, computing) A standard or normal presentation of a mathematical entity or a text string, etc.

   A canonical form is an element of a set of representatives of equivalence classes of forms such that there is a function or procedure which projects every element of each equivalence class onto that one element, the canonical form of that equivalence class. The canonical form is expected to be simpler than the rest of the forms in some way. For example, for cubic polynomials acted upon by the group of translations along the abscissa, the canonical forms are cubic polynomials without a quadratic term.

2. (physical chemistry) Any of a set of representations of the resonance structure of a molecule each of which contributes to the real structure; a contributing structure.
3. (linguistics, rare) Synonym of dictionary form

Synonyms

• normal form (mathematics)
• standard form (mathematics)
• citation form (linguistics)
• dictionary form (linguistics)
• basic form (linguistics)

Related terms

• headword (linguistics)
• lemma (linguistics)

Translations

standard or normal presentation of a mathematical entity

• Czech: kanonický tvar m
• Finnish: kanoninen muoto, normaalimuoto
• French: forme canonique (fr) f
• German: Normalform (de) f
• Polish: postać kanoniczna f
• Portuguese: forma canônica f
• Russian: канони́ческая фо́рма f (kanoníčeskaja fórma)

chemistry: any of a set of representations of the resonance structure of a molecule

linguistics: dictionary form — see dictionary form

Further reading

• canonical form on Wikipedia.Wikipedia