cannot

can +‎ not

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkænɒt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkæ(n.)nɑt/, /ˈkɛ(n.)nɑt/, /kə(n)ˈnɑt/, /kɪ(n)ˈnɑt/

• Audio (US)

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• (Canada) IPA^(key): /kəˈnɑt/
• Hyphenation: can‧not
• Rhymes: -ɒt

cannot

1. Can not (am/is/are unable to).

   I cannot open the window. It is stuck.

2. Am/are/is forbidden or not permitted to
   • 1668 December 19, James Dalrymple, “Mr. Alexander Seaton contra Menzies” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575

     The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Diſcharge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extinguiſh the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and conſequently of all the reſt, they being all correi debendi, lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Diſcharged as to one, and ſtand as to all the reſt.

   • 2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10:

     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.

   You cannot enter the hall without a ticket.

Both the one-word form cannot and the two-word form can not are acceptable, but cannot is more common (in the Oxford English Corpus, 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.

• can't

cannot (plural cannots)

1. Something that cannot be done.

   the cans and cannots

• Canton, Conant, canton, noncat

cannot m (plural cannots)

1. (Jersey) duckling

• cannoter (“to walk like a duck”)