cranny
Americannoun
-
crannies
plural
-
a small, narrow opening in a wall, rock, etc.; chink; crevice; fissure.
They searched every nook and cranny for the missing ring.
-
a small out-of-the-way place or obscure corner; nook.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cranny
1400–50; late Middle English crany, perhaps < Middle French crené, past participle of crener to notch, groove; see crenel
Explanation
A cranny is a little crack or narrow opening, Many cats like to settle themselves into any cranny they can find. A rock wall is full of crannies where you can fit your fingers and feet as you climb up, while a tree's crackly bark provides crannies for insects to hide in. It's pretty common to see the word cranny accompanied by nook: "When you vacuum the living room, don't forget about all the little nooks and crannies!" Cranny is a diminutive of the Old French cran, "notch or fissure," from crener, "to split."
Vocabulary lists containing cranny
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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The BFG
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Before We Were Free
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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:
In the yard, multicolored concrete sculptures adorn nearly every nook and cranny.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
The living space is heavily shielded with acoustic laminated glass and sound-dampening insulation in every cranny.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
It takes time for higher energy prices to work their way into every nook and cranny of the economy.
From MarketWatch ● May 16, 2026
The film makes fantastic use of its single shooting location, tucking horror into every last nook and cranny of this potentially haunted house.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2026
They go from room to room, looking in every nook and cranny.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
All the little nooks and crannies of our lives enjoy Fourth Amendment protections.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026
It’s a good time to find those nooks and crannies.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
She laughed at the mental image, then made me vow not to crawl into crannies when she wasn’t around.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
Inside, dainty horse figurines painted in pastels peek out from nooks and crannies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2025
The laundry room was both one of the wars obscure crannies and a microcosm of the war itself, a sophisticated, efficient machine capable of processing eighteen thousand bundles of laundry each week.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
