cant

Imagine a secret club with its own private language—that’s cant. It isn’t just any slang; it’s the specialized vocabulary used by a particular group, often to exclude outsiders. Historically, cant was the “thieves’ tongue,” a coded way for beggars and criminals to communicate without being understood. In modern life you’ll still see this sense in professions (law, medicine, finance) and subcultures that develop their own shorthand.

But the word has a sharper edge, too. Cant can also mean the kind of lofty, “proper” talk that is meant to impress—moral slogans, patriotic phrases, religious-sounding lines—especially when they feel rehearsed or insincere. You might hear someone dismiss a speech as political cant when it’s full of safe platitudes and empty virtue.

And in a completely different, practical sense, cant can mean a tilt or slant: the slight angle of a road, a wall, or even a pair of wheels that are set a bit off-vertical.

Cant (not the contraction can’t) is a word with multiple lives. In everyday writing it most often shows up in discussions of language and sincerity, but it also has a down-to-earth meaning in engineering and design.

1) *In-group language (jargon or “secret” speech).* One classic meaning is the special vocabulary of a particular group, especially a group that wants privacy or exclusivity. Historically this was “rogues’ cant,” a slangy, coded way for criminals and beggars to communicate without outsiders catching on. In a softer, modern form it includes professional jargon and subcultural slang—language that signals membership and can shut outsiders out.

2) *Insincere, formulaic “virtue talk.” Cant* can also mean speech that sounds morally elevated but feels hollow: stock phrases about goodness, duty, faith, or public values that are performed rather than meant. Calling something “moral cant” is a way of saying, “This is posturing—pretty words without real conviction.” It’s a common accusation in politics, advertising, and public debate, where polished language can hide weak ideas or questionable motives.

3) *A tilt or slant (the literal angle). In technical contexts, cant is simply the amount something leans. You can talk about the cant of a road on a curve, a canted wall, or wheels with a slight inward or outward cant. As a verb, to cant* can mean to set something at an angle or to lean.

Less commonly, cant can also name a roughly squared-off piece of timber (a log hewn flat on two sides).

Whether it’s coded in-group vocabulary, the hollow language of moral posturing, or a literal slant in a structure, cant is about angle—sometimes in words, sometimes in wood and stone.