canny
Americanadjective
adverb
-
in a canny manner.
-
Scot. carefully; cautiously.
adjective
-
shrewd, esp in business; astute or wary; knowing
-
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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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:
It looks to be a canny piece of business from City.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
The president, played by Jeff Daniels, emerges as focused, canny, charming and witty in this fond portrayal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
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
It will take more than stolen KitKats and canny marketing to turn the company around.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
“Anyone who would keep pace with your craftiness must be a canny dealer.”
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
The book reveals negotiations over public funding for the royals when the Sovereign Grant was introduced in 2012 - and presents the Palace as cannier about money than their counterparts in Westminster.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2025
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
But it would have been cannier of Barnes to make her a genuinely convincing provocateur.
From New York Times ● Aug. 17, 2022
But to do this, philanthropists need to be cannier about their analysis and tactics.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 8, 2020
And those colliers were reckless with their cash, far readier to commit themselves to buying than the cannier country bodies round.
From The House with the Green Shutters by George Douglas Brown
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
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
But control is just one effect, and in some ways the canniest — nothing else so efficiently earns the reader’s trust and can lull her into sleepy credulity.
From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2021
But Sarah isn't about to relinquish her grip on either her sanity or her fortune, and Mirren, among the canniest of screen actors, supplies a rational impulse for her every Miss Havisham-like eccentricity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 2, 2018
It was the canniest thing she could have done to re-establish herself in Davidge’s eyes.
From The Cup of Fury A Novel of Cities and Shipyards by Henry Raleigh
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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.
