uncanny
adjective
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Uncanny describes that which unsettles us, such as disquieting observations, or mysterious situations and circumstances. Strip the word of its common negating prefix, though, and you’re left with canny, a word that shares semantic territory with clever and prudent. While canny and uncanny don’t appear to be antonyms, they both come from an early Scottish word canny meaning “free from risk; wise, prudent, cautious.” And in Scottish, canny has for centuries had a secondary meaning that correlates better to its mysterious cousin: the Oxford English Dictionary reports that the word is used in negative constructions to describe what is not safe to be involved with, or more broadly, what is not in accordance with what is right or natural. Rather uncanny.
Synonyms
Examples of uncanny in a Sentence
Bono, Time, 18 Apr. 2005
To an economist, the 1990s bear an uncanny resemblance to two earlier decades: the 1920s in the United States and the 1980s in Japan. In all three decades, technological change produced extraordinary economic growth, leading to talk of a "new era" and triggering a bull market in stocks that terminated in a market collapse—widely regarded as the bursting of a speculative bubble.
—Milton Friedman, Wall Street Journal, 22 Jan. 2002
As he approached quite close to the enclosure he saw an excited group surrounding the two fugitives, who, trembling with fright and exhaustion, were scarce able to recount the uncanny details of their adventure.
—Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, 1914
She could not teach herself to think favourably of Pansy, whose absence of initiative, of conversation, of personal claims, seemed to her, in a girl of twenty, unnatural and even uncanny.
—Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, 1881
She had an uncanny resemblance to someone I had seen before.
She has an uncanny sense of direction.
an uncanny ability to predict the weather
Tacita Quinn, CNN, 31 Oct. 2024
One of her own drawings, a sort of Hansel and Gretel scenario, will also play a part in the action, which is ripe with echoes and reflections and uncanny parallels, along with dead people who might be ghosts or visions or psychological projections, or some combination thereof.
—Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2024
In Babygirl, his head looks like a lush, uncanny tennis ball: too short to be normal, too long to be a buzz — the clear ideal cut on a guy like him.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 25 Oct. 2024
After sharing photos of some of the vintage dolls online, the uncanny images went viral and amassed a following of fans around the globe.
—Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Oct. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near uncanny
Cite this Entry
“Uncanny.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/uncanny. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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uncanny
adjective
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