From Middle English cancellen, from Anglo-Norman canceler (modern French chanceler), from Latin cancellō, from cancellus ("a railing or lattice"), diminutive of cancer ("a lattice").

• IPA: /ˈkæn.sl̩/, [ˈkɛən.sl̩ ~ ˈkeən.sl̩]

cancel (third-person singular simple present cancels, present participle cancelling or (US) canceling, simple past and past participle cancelled or (US) canceled)

1. (transitive) To cross out something with lines etc.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC ↗:

     A deed may be avoided by delivering it up to be cancelled; that is, to have lines drawn over it in the form of latticework or cancelli; the phrase is now used figuratively for any manner of obliterating or defacing it.

2. (transitive) To invalidate or annul something.

   Synonyms: belay

   He cancelled his order on their website.

   • 1914, Marjorie Benton Cooke, Bambi:

     "I don't know what your agreement was, Herr Professor, but if it had money in it, cancel it. I want him to learn that lesson, too."

3. (transitive) To mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it can't be reused.

   This machine cancels the letters that have a valid zip code.

4. (transitive) To offset or equalize something.

   The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.

5. (transitive, mathematics) To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.
6. (transitive, media) To stop production of a programme.
7. (printing, dated) To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
8. (obsolete) To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:

     cancelled from heaven

9. (slang) To kill.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:kill

10. (transitive, neologism) To cease to provide financial or moral support to (someone deemed unacceptable); to disinvite. Compare cancel culture.

    Synonyms: blacklist, deplatform, Thesaurus:boycott

    • 2020 July 3, Kristi Noem speech at Mount Rushmore transcribed by C-SPAN:

      To attempt to cancel the founding generation is an attempt to cancel our own freedoms.

• German: ausstreichen, durchstreichen, kanzellieren (obsolete)
• Italian: depennare, cancellare, eliminare
• Portuguese: riscar
• Russian: зачёркивать

• French: annuler, résilier (a telephone contract, a subscription), se désabonner (a subscription), mettre fin, décommander
• German: annullieren, streichen, stornieren, absagen, canceln, abbestellen, kanzellieren (obsolete)
• Italian: invalidare, annullare, recidere, cassare
• Portuguese: anular, invalidar, cancelar
• Russian: отменя́ть
• Spanish: cancelar

• French: oblitérer (cancelling stamps)
• German: entwerten, abstempeln, kanzellieren (obsolete or translationese)
• Italian: obliterare, annullare
• Russian: погаша́ть

• French: neutraliser, compenser
• German: aufheben, auslöschen
• Italian: neutralizzare, compensare, filtrare
• Portuguese: neutralizar
• Russian: отсека́ть

• French: éliminer, annuler
• German: kürzen
• Portuguese: eliminar
• Russian: сокраща́ть

• German: einstellen

• German: auslöschen

• German: canceln, (uncommon) kanzellieren
• Portuguese: cancelar

cancel (plural cancels)

1. (US) A cancellation.
   1. A control message posted to Usenet that serves to cancel a previously posted message.
2. (obsolete) An enclosure; a boundary; a limit.
   • 1678, Antiquitates Christianæ: Or, the History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […], London: […] E. Flesher, and R. Norton, for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC ↗:

     A prison is but a retirement, and opportunity of serious thoughts, to a person whose spirit […] desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body.

3. (printing) The suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.
4. (printing) The page thus suppressed.
5. (printing) The page that replaces it.

• French: annulation
• Italian: cancellazione, annullamento, cassazione, timbro postale, obliteratore
• Portuguese: anulação

1. Surname.