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• canterbury
  canterbury

  noun

  a stand having sections for holding magazines, sheet music, or loose papers.
• Canterbury
  Canterbury

  noun

  a city in E Kent, in SE England: cathedral; early ecclesiastical center of England.

canterbury

¹ American  

[kan-ter-ber-ee, -buh-ree] / ˈkæn tərˌbɛr i, -bə ri /

noun

• canterburies
  plural

1. a stand having sections for holding magazines, sheet music, or loose papers.

2. a supper tray with partitions for cutlery and plates.

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Canterbury ² American  

[kan-ter-ber-ee, -buh-ree, -bree] / ˈkæn tərˌbɛr i, -bə ri, -bri /

noun

1. a city in E Kent, in SE England: cathedral; early ecclesiastical center of England.

2. a municipality in E New South Wales, in SE Australia: a part of Sydney.

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Canterbury ¹ British  

/ ˈkæntəbərɪ, -brɪ /

noun

1. Latin name: Durovernum.  a city in SE England, in E Kent: starting point for St Augustine's mission to England (597 _ad ); cathedral where St Thomas à Becket was martyred (1170); seat of the archbishop and primate of England; seat of the University of Kent (1965). Pop: 43 552 (2001)

2. a regional council area of New Zealand, on E central South Island on Canterbury Bight : mountainous with coastal lowlands; agricultural. Chief town: Christchurch. Pop: 520 500 (2004 est). Area: 43 371 sq km (16 742 sq miles)

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canterbury ² British  

/ ˈkæntəbərɪ, -brɪ /

noun

1. a late 18th-century low wooden stand with partitions for holding cutlery and plates: often mounted on casters

2. a similar 19th-century stand used for holding sheet music, music books, or magazines

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Canterburian
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• canterburies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of canterbury

1840–50; after Canterbury, England

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

canterbury Canterbury

“This year, the flowers that are blooming include canterbury and school bells, arroyo lupine, and California poppy,” the parks department said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2023

Yet his finest work was full of ironical laughter; a "canterbury tale," in medieval slang, was a lie.

From Time Magazine Archive

Wax-lights shine in tall, old-fashioned silver candlesticks on the mantelpiece, and on the centre table, and on a pianoforte, beside which stands a canterbury full of music-books.

From A Charming Fellow, Volume I (of 3) by Frances Eleanor Trollope

Una followed him to the piano, and Jack turned out all the music from the canterbury on the floor.

From Only One Love, or Who Was the Heir by Charles Garvice

Mr. Hawkins: In our gardens the hollyhocks form one of the best backgrounds we can have, beautiful, tall, stately stalks, and the canterbury bells, certainly nothing more beautiful than they.

From Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 Embracing the Transactions of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society,Volume 44, from December 1, 1915, to December 1, 1916, Including the Twelve Numbers of "The Minnesota Horticulturist" for 1916 by A. W. Latham

While Gervais's cringeworthy character David Brent provided many of the belly laughs, the ever-present Dawn and her love interest Tim Canterbury, played by Martin Freeman, gave the show its emotional backbone.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Prof. Mike Steel, from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and Prof. Daniel Huson from the University of Tübingen brought expertise in analyzing complex networks to the project.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026

All 534 lots sold during a two-day auction, Canterbury Auction Galleries said.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

The men were sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday having earlier pleaded guilty to endangerment.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

He attended the King’s School in Canterbury in the early 1580s, at the same time as Christopher Marlowe, who was two years older than him, then studied at Cambridge.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin