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Canute

American

[kuh-noot, -nyoot] / kəˈnut, -ˈnjut /

Also Cnut,

noun

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

Canute British

/ kəˈnjuːt /

noun

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)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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Canute

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

But Elizabeth could no more stop the force of media than her forebear King Canute could halt the tide.

From New York Times ● Sep. 19, 2022

Rolf is said to have been the outlawed son of a Norse earl; Canute was the younger son of a Danish king: neither had the promise of sovereignty or of landed inheritance.

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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023