Meaning & use
canister
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Meanings
nouncountable
A round or box-shaped container with a lid, made of metal, plastic or glass, in which food or other things are kept.
Grammar: Countable: a canister of tea, three canisters on the shelf.
Patterns
- a canister of something
- a canister for something
She keeps flour and sugar in matching canisters on the counter.
An empty tea canister made a perfect pencil holder.
The camping store sells canisters for storing dry food.
nouncountable
A sealed metal container that holds gas, spray, film or another material that must be kept under pressure or protected.
Grammar: Countable and often named by its contents: a gas canister, a smoke canister.
Patterns
- a gas/oxygen canister
- a canister of something
Hikers carried a small gas canister for the stove.
A canister of tear gas rolled across the street.
The diver checked the oxygen canister before going under.
Word forms
| plural | canisters |
|---|
Common combinations
- gas canister
- The camp stove runs on a small gas canister.
- tea canister
- Grandmother kept loose tea in a painted tea canister.
- oxygen canister
- The climber's oxygen canister ran low near the summit.
- airtight canister
- Store the coffee beans in an airtight canister to keep them fresh.
- spray canister
- He shook the spray canister before using it.
- film canister
- Old photographs were found in a rusty film canister.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tin
- Tin is the usual British word for a metal box with a lid, and it sounds more ordinary than canister.
- jar
- Jar is normally glass or clay with a wide mouth, while a canister is more often metal or plastic and has a lid that fits over the top.
- cylinder
- Cylinder is more technical and fits pressurized gas storage, whereas canister can also hold dry food.
- container
- Container is the broadest term for any holder, so canister is more specific about shape and lid.
Word family
Commonly confused: canister or cannister?
canister vs cannister
Cannister is a common misspelling. The standard spelling has a single n after the first syllable: canister.
Practice
Which spelling is the standard one for a container that holds tea or flour?
Choose one answer.
Canister has one n and ends in -ister. Cannister is a frequent misspelling, and the other forms are not words.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “canister”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.