canny
canny Lexical Profile
canny Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Having or showing shrewdness and good judgment, especially in money or business matters.
"A canny investor knows when to hold onto assets and when to sell before the market shifts."
Scottish Pleasant, agreeable, or good (used in Scottish and northern English dialect).
"They settled into a canny little cottage overlooking the quiet harbor."
• adverb
British Very; quite; rather (used as an intensifier in northern English and Scottish dialect).
"The wind off the North Sea was blowing canny hard by late afternoon."
Word Nuance & Usage
Although 'uncanny' is formed by adding a negative prefix to 'canny', it is not its direct opposite in modern usage; while 'canny' means shrewd and perceptive, 'uncanny' means strange, mysterious, or unsettlingly familiar.
• Rhymes for canny
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in 16th-century Scots, formed from the verb 'can' (meaning 'to know how' or 'to be able', from Old English 'cunnan') plus the adjective suffix '-y', originally denoting someone possessing knowledge or skill.