Relations between cantons singular adjective. A canton is a region or territorial, political or administrative division of a country or nation that tends to have some political or administrative autonomy from the central State, as the three cantons of the Swiss Confederation: the South speaks Italian, in the East, in the West, French and German. Canton is also a province and a town in the southeast of the People's Republic of China of about 3 million people or almost 13 if we have its metropolitan area. It is also a part of a Heraldic Shield.