Cannot is not a contraction. It is the full negative form of the modal verb “can” (e.g., “I cannot attend the meeting today”).
It’s important to note that cannot and can not are not interchangeable.
A contraction is a short form of word combinations we commonly use in speech. For instance, “I’m” is the contraction of “I am,” “let’s” is the contraction of “let us,” and “can’t” is the contraction of “cannot.”
Most contractions have an apostrophe where a part of the full form is left out, but some don’t (e.g., “gonna” for “going to).
We don’t generally use contractions in formal writing (e.g., academic writing).
You can use QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker to help you use contractions appropriately in your writing.