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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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
But the debate between the Iraqi leader and the CIA analyst—the former arrogant, canny and pragmatic; the latter cautious, politic but unyielding—makes for an exciting primer on the recent history of the region.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 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
Shorn of the suspended Ramsey and Davies, Wales were stifled by their canny opponents, who secured a 2-0 win with second-half goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 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 Adams were cannier and less damaged, he could find a comfortable way to win.
From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2024
But it would have been cannier of Barnes to make her a genuinely convincing provocateur.
From New York Times ● Aug. 17, 2022
"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
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
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
Not being much of an equestrian, she was mounted upon a Highland pony as being the canniest baste.
From Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character by Edward Bannerman Ramsay
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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.
