cant (architecture)

{{Short description|Architectural term}}

Image:Ragusa-Chiesa-Anime-Purgatorio.JPG, Ragusa: the facade are angled (canted) back from the centre.]]

Image:CountyHallSideAylesbury.jpg with canted recesses]]

A cant in architecture is an angled (oblique-angled) line or surface that cuts off a corner."cant" def. 5 and 10. Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Cant}}

Something with a cant is canted.

Canted façades are a typical of, but not exclusive to, Baroque architecture. The angle breaking the façade is less than a right angle, thus enabling a canted façade to be viewed as, and remain, one composition. Bay windows frequently have canted sides.

A cant is sometimes synonymous with chamfer and bevel.{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Cyril |title=Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture |date=2013 |publisher=Courier |isbn=978-0-486-13211-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kp_DAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT249 |quote=chamfer: 1. A bevel or cant, such as a small splay at the external angle of a masonry wall}}