What Does CANON-EVENT Mean?

A "canon event" is an unavoidable event that changes the protagonist's life. The term originated in the 2023 movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, in which each universe's Spider-Man experiences certain "canon events" that lead to them becoming the amazing "web slinger.". In the movie, the concept is introduced as significant incidents that shape each Spider-Person into who they are. The term went viral on TikTok, with users sharing their own "canon events," many of which were neither "unavoidable" nor "life changing," but which they could not avoid sharing and, in so doing, might have achieved an insignificant and brief change to their sad and boring lives. For example:
- TikToker 1: My canon event is losing my phone. (In this example, the world yawned.)
- TikToker 2: Canon Event! My little brother is getting ready for his first date. (In this example, the world smiled knowingly.)
Image for Canon Event
When I write Canon Event, I mean this:

Canon events are significant and unavoidable incidents that shape a person.
Summary of Key Points
We have summarized the key points in the table below:CANON-EVENT | |
---|---|
Definition: | Unavoidable Event That Changes the Protagonist's Life |
Type: | Word |
Guessability: | ![]() 3: Guessable |
Typical Users: | ![]() Adults and Teenagers |
An Academic Look at Canon Event

The term "Canon Event" can be considered a neologism. A neologism is a newly coined word or phrase that has recently come into use or has been created to describe a new concept, idea, or phenomenon. Neologisms can be created in any language and can take different forms, such as:
- A new meaning for an existing word (e.g., cloud, mood, sick, tweet, viral).
- A completely new word (e.g., fomo, selfie, emoji).
- A new combination of existing words, or words with prefixes or suffixes (e.g., cloutrage, digital detox, situationship, oversharing, antifragile).
Example of CANON-EVENT Used in a Text
You might also like...
Help Us Improve Cyber Definitions
- Do you disagree with something on this page?
- Did you spot a typo?
- Do you know a slang term that we've missed?
Share This Page

If you like Cyber Definitions (or this page in particular), please link to it or share it with others. If you do, please tell us. It helps us a lot!
Create a QR Code

Use our handy widget to create a QR code for this page...or any page.
next up:
What does 2BH mean?More Topics...
emoji library
(send a huge emoji)sex & dating terms
(fine-tune your search)spotting drug abuse
(protect loved ones)saying "I love you"
(learn new ways)encrypting messages
(get sneaky!)gaming terms
(chat like a gamer)spotting grooming
(protect loved ones)numbers in texting
(improve brevity)Spanish slang terms
(get "slangy" in Spanish)using special symbols
(find the codes)coronavirus terms
(remember covidiots)