To me, "canonical" feels more descriptive whereas "orthodox" has a prescriptive connotation. But I'm also ESL, so not sure if that's just me or common in any/all English-speaking countries.

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schoen 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

They're both derived from religious terms or religious metaphors.

For me (native U.S. English speaker) the religious reference in "orthodox" is more transparent and that in "canonical" is more obscure, so "canonical" sounds more technical or more neutral somehow.

	▲	rswail 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Agreed, but "canon law" has always meant church law. Canonical is derived from that, and it's got similar connotations of "reference design" as the use of "orthodox" here.

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drnick1 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

"Canonical" is used all the time in math to mean, roughly speaking, a "standard" or "preferred" way of doing things.