Canute

American  

[kuh-noot, -nyoot] / kəˈnut, -ˈnyut /

Also Cnut,

noun

1. a.d. 994?–1035, Danish king of England 1017–35; of Denmark 1018–35; and of Norway 1028–35.

---

Canute British  

/ kəˈnjuːt /

noun

1. died 1035, Danish king of England (1016–35), Denmark (1018–35), and Norway (1028–35). He defeated Edmund II of England (1016), but divided the kingdom with him until Edmund's death. An able ruler, he invaded Scotland (1027) and drove Olaf II from Norway (1028)

---

Example Sentences

But it may be a King Canute effort of fighting the tide of rising longer-term yields worldwide.

From Barron's • Dec. 12, 2025

Canute knew that reality was bigger than he or any idea he had.

From Washington Times • Dec. 26, 2023

“Not even if I could. I might as well be King Canute, forbidding the tide to come in.”

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 5, 2023

By 2015, the old gatekeepers had entered a kind of crisis of confidence, believing they couldn’t control the online news cycle any better than King Canute could control the tides.

From New York Times • Oct. 25, 2020

Apparently the curia urged reform in church dues generally, for a little later Canute sent his English subjects a sharp reminder on this point.

From Canute the Great The Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age by Larson, Laurence Marcellus