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• cantor
  cantor

  noun

  the religious official of a synagogue who conducts the liturgical portion of a service and sings or chants the prayers and parts of prayers designed to be performed as solos.
• Cantor
  Cantor

  noun

  Eddie Edward Israel Iskovitz, 1892–1964, U.S. singer and entertainer.

cantor

¹ American  

[kan-ter, -tawr] / ˈkæn tər, -tɔr /

noun

1. the religious official of a synagogue who conducts the liturgical portion of a service and sings or chants the prayers and parts of prayers designed to be performed as solos.

2. an official whose duty is to lead the singing in a cathedral or in a collegiate or parish church; a precentor.

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Cantor ² American  

[kan-ter, kahn-tawr] / ˈkæn tər, ˈkɑn tɔr /

noun

1. Eddie Edward Israel Iskovitz, 1892–1964, U.S. singer and entertainer.

2. Georg 1845–1918, German mathematician, born in Russia.

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cantor British  

/ ˈkæntɔː /

noun

1. Also called: chazan.  Judaism a man employed to lead synagogue services, esp to traditional modes and melodies

2. Christianity the leader of the singing in a church choir

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Etymology

Origin of cantor

1530–40; < Latin: singer, equivalent to can ( ere ) to sing + -tor -tor

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cantor Cantor

They were performed at the St Thomas Church in Leipzig, where Bach is buried and where he worked as a cantor for 27 years.

From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025

They were also performed for the first time in 320 years at the St Thomas Church in Leipzig, where Bach is buried and served as a cantor for 27 years.

From Barron's ● Nov. 17, 2025

Douglas Purcell, the cantor at St. Ignatius Loyola, said in an interview after the service that the lack of mention of the former president seemed to be in accordance with Barry’s wishes.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 17, 2023

During the small wedding ceremony, a cantor performed the sheva brachot — the seven blessings — and Mohamed’s brother read a passage in Arabic from the Quran.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2023

It was difficult, however, because to play Lotería we needed a caller, un cantor, and Papá had always been ours.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

“We continue to view MongoDB as a beneficiary of secular app modernization trends and dynamic AI growth trends,” Cantor analysts headed by Thomas Blakey said in a Tuesday note.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

Cantor kept its price target of $250 in place for the stock.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026

Kalshi recently announced another partnership with Cantor Fitzgerald.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

“That’s the Kind of a Baby for Me” was a hit for Eddie Cantor when he sang it in the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1910s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

She worked in finance, for a company called Cantor Fitzgerald, and her dad was a math teacher, so he was interviewing at schools in the area.

From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin