is a process for converting data that has more than one possible representation into a "standard", "normal", or canonical form.
As per Wikipedia:
In computer science, canonicalization (abbreviated c14n, where 14 represents the number of letters between the C and the N; also sometimes standardization or normalization) is a process for converting data that has more than one possible representation into a "standard", "normal", or canonical form. This can be done to compare different representations for equivalence, to count the number of distinct data structures, to improve the efficiency of various algorithms by eliminating repeated calculations, or to make it possible to impose a meaningful sorting order.
