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:
It will take more than stolen KitKats and canny marketing to turn the company around.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
But that art, Serrano says, was created by Monroe, with equal parts natural magnetism and a canny, rigorous sense of her own strengths.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
She beamed when the first wicket came - New Zealand batter Georgia Plimmer done in the air by some canny flight and picking out mid-off.
From BBC ● May 10, 2026
The reason for that is resoundingly apparent in the documentary “Bernstein’s Wall,” opening at New York’s Film Forum this weekend, which focuses on both Bernstein’s political activism and politically canny sense of his public.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 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
How do they take a cannier approach to prevent Max Verstappen swooping in and stealing the championship from under their nose?
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 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
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 Buchan, John
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
One of the canniest things about the Wick films is how they riff on Reeves’ public image.
From The Guardian ● May 18, 2019
Khrushchev soon emerges as one of the canniest of these survivors, though Beria moves faster and initially with far more lethal force.
From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2018
Of these last, "love-letters" is the most important, and "mixed" the canniest, for it practically lets in everything.
From A Letter Book Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing by Saintsbury, George
Definitions 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.
