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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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cantor Cantor

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

Laurence Harris and his wife Ruth, the longtime cantor, raced to Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center as embers started to rain down , attempting to rescue what they could.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2025

In Grades IV and V, they perform tests at a walk, trot, cantor and do lateral work.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2024

Born Sidney Liebowitz in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn, Lawrence was the son of a Jewish cantor who worked as a house painter.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 7, 2024

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

"There may have been concerns that he may not have been able to recreate the impact of his first period at the Amex but that has been dispelled already," added Cantor.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

He started an investment firm that managed $1.5 billion in assets and was sold to Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisors in 2017.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Thomas Blakey wrote that, ”importantly,” MongoDB stuck with its full-year forecast while disclosing the CEO transition.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

Cantor Fitzgerald ended up hiring me for her old job.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

In the real world, I had never met anyone who spent as much time with flowers as Mr. Cantor.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

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