canny
Americanadjective
adverb
-
in a canny manner.
-
Scot. carefully; cautiously.
adjective
-
shrewd, esp in business; astute or wary; knowing
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dialect good or nice: used as a general term of approval
-
lucky or fortunate
adverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of canny
Explanation
If you're a canny investor, you know how to spend money to make money — that is, you're prudent, farsighted, and capable of protecting your own interests, particularly in matters of finance or business. In contemporary usage, canny is a synonym for shrewd. Both words mean smart or sharp-witted, but they also suggest that someone is smart in a self-serving and possibly even tricky way. Canny is also related to the word cunning — another adjective meaning "wise," but with negative connotations. Uncanny is not the opposite of canny — it means "weird" or "unsettling."
Vocabulary lists containing canny
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Beowulf
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But the pair are just the latest in the long line of hustlers, fraudsters and canny opportunists who have been working to undermine science in this country for more than a century.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2026
Already celebrated by the French for his electricity experiments and the musings in “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” Franklin quickly perfected a broad and canny celebrityhood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
It will take more than stolen KitKats and canny marketing to turn the company around.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
Credit must go to Dean, who conceded only two from the 13th over with her canny off-spin.
From BBC ● May 30, 2026
In their circle, it was held to be no disgrace to import goods illegally, but rather sharp practice was accounted a sign of canny business acumen.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
But that film was a cannier bid for next-level success, offsetting its three-act corniness with emotional stakes that led to a crescendo of its genius headliner’s performance prowess.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2025
"If Don had been better informed, he might have been cannier about the potential complications that come with coaching an adolescent girl. Clearly, he wasn't a predator," she added.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2022
While voters throughout the country were glued to their TVs and reflexively refreshing news and political sites on Tuesday night, a few of the cannier ones were paying more attention to something else.
From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2020
But to do this, philanthropists need to be cannier about their analysis and tactics.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 8, 2020
Ca' cannier and be a wee thing quieter in your langwidge.
From The Half-Hearted by John Buchan
Penetrating a well-placed camera can get analysts closer to targets and carries less risk than infiltrating even the canniest secret agent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Simon Russell Beale, to my mind the canniest wielder of dramatic poetry in the English language, was honored for his mesmerizing lead performance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2022
Wolfson is widely considered to be one of the canniest operators in UK retail and NEXT's significant on-line business has helped the company weather the assault of e-commerce on traditional retail.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2021
One of the canniest aspects of The Glass Hotel is Mandel’s depiction of how people rationalize the ways they have harmed others.
From Slate ● Mar. 24, 2020
They talked of a hard winter ahead, and the canniest of them defied the skeptics by riding into Medora trailing a pack-horse and purchasing six months' supplies of provisions at one time.
From Roosevelt in the Bad Lands by Hermann Hagedorn
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
