CANNY
What does "CANNY" mean?
Shrewd and careful, especially in money matters or judgment.
Meanings
- Having or showing practical shrewdness, prudence, and good judgment. A canny investor, she sold just before the market turned.
- In Scottish and Northern English use, careful, cautious, or pleasant and steady. He's a canny lad - he'll not waste a penny. informal
Did you know?
- The eerie word 'uncanny' is just 'canny' with a negative prefix: where 'canny' means knowing and shrewd, 'un-canny' originally meant something beyond what could be known - which is why it came to mean strange and unsettling.
Word origin
From Scots and Northern English, from 'can' in the older sense of 'know how to', plus the suffix '-y'; literally 'knowing'. The same root sits behind 'uncanny', meaning beyond ordinary knowing.
Remember it
A CANNY person always 'can' work the angle - they know how to handle the situation.
A little poem
She counts the cost before the throw,
and keeps the half you'll never know.
couplet
What it teaches
Cleverness shows; canniness just quietly keeps you from the trap.
Quick facts
What does CANNY mean?
Shrewd and careful, especially in money matters or judgment.
Is CANNY a valid word?
Yes — CANNY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is CANNY?
CANNY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does CANNY come from?
From Scots and Northern English, from 'can' in the older sense of 'know how to', plus the suffix '-y'; literally 'knowing'. The same root sits behind 'uncanny', meaning beyond ordinary knowing.
What can CANNY teach us?
Cleverness shows; canniness just quietly keeps you from the trap.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.