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
100 Top "SAT" Words
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Beowulf
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Bright Ideas: Synonyms For "Smart"
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
"His reaction, for someone who's normally pretty canny when it comes to the media, is extraordinarily counterproductive," said Bale.
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
This 1768 painting of the silversmith and American revolutionary is both a tribute to the dignity of craftsmen and a work of canny political symbolism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
The recent Rome runner-up is the canny choice to go all the way - although he could face Djokovic in the fourth round.
From BBC ● May 28, 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
I considered how canny my father was, despite being a fool.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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
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
He needs to be a much cannier person and not show his lining too much.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2020
He freely consented to settle every penny he had upon his wife, and, as his mother-in-law justly remarked, “Many a cannier man wouldn’t just have done that.”
From Six to Sixteen A Story for Girls by Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty
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
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
To the south of France’s canniest festival of cinema, then, where a buffet of Mel Gibson movies is being shopped to apparently voracious buyers.
From The Guardian ● May 16, 2019
The moral which fits the bill here, I think, is survival of the canniest.
From Behind the News: Voices from Goa's Press by Various
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.
