Cancellation means calling off or stopping something that was planned. When a baseball game gets canceled due to rain, it won't happen as scheduled. When your family cancels a dinner reservation, you're telling the restaurant you won't be coming after all.

The word applies to all sorts of plans: canceled flights, canceled subscriptions, canceled meetings. Sometimes cancellations happen for good reasons (a snowstorm makes travel dangerous), and sometimes they're disappointing (your favorite show gets canceled after one season). A cancellation fee is money you might have to pay when you cancel a hotel reservation or appointment at the last minute.

The related word cancel can also mean to make something ineffective by balancing it out, like when you cancel a debt by paying it, or when two opposite forces cancel each other out.