How to Use janky in a Sentence

janky

adjective
  • Did no one tell him that the Globes were kind of janky?
    Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 11 Jan. 2023
  • Back in the ’50s and ’60s, the first batches were often janky messes.
    Clive Thompson, Wired, 17 Jan. 2021
  • The game’s graphics are low-fi and its movements are janky.
    Adam Epstein, Quartz, 1 Oct. 2020
  • The flood of YouTube obituary videos is a janky update on this practice.
    WIRED, 22 Sep. 2023
  • The truly janky bits Heybike pegs the Tyson's range at 55 miles on pedal assist, and the battery can get a full charge in four to five hours.
    Eric Bangeman, Ars Technica, 6 Oct. 2023
  • When Mckenzie complained about her janky teeth, Kerr popped out her upper dental bridge to make her laugh.
    Los Angeles Times, 13 July 2022
  • But perhaps millions more hated the feature simply because of how janky the views display looked jammed next to retweets and likes.
    Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 27 Dec. 2022
  • Ready to swap out the janky old vacuum your mom passed down to you in college for a more current (and effective) option?
    Erin Parker, Glamour, 25 Dec. 2021
  • When the janky Internet connection goes out, his mom, Gabrielle Alston, tries to use the hotspot on her phone, but then her data runs out.
    Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 27 Aug. 2020
  • Of course, California’s not the only place where power is janky.
    Christopher Null, Wired, 12 Nov. 2020
  • The extra-wide, side-by-side screens give off major Microsoft Surface Duo vibes, just without the janky software.
    Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 13 July 2023
  • With Luis' support, Roach opens a janky massage parlor below the empanada joint in an effort to start a new chapter.
    Pamela Avila, USA TODAY, 7 July 2023
  • A lot of thought has been put into how a janky old phone or wireless earbuds might affect Emily and Sam’s communication.
    Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Seeing your peppermint brownie recipe in a janky online newspaper will not redistribute the world's wealth and power.
    Chris Colin, Wired, 18 June 2020
  • There are Russian oligarchs and business titans, strongmen, burner phones, janky bars and SROs, and dubious, shadowy figures with dirty hands.
    Tracy Clark, Washington Post, 24 Feb. 2023
  • The Pixel 4a makes big design gains over the Pixel 4 by scrapping Google's janky air gesture system, which necessitated a bigger top bezel.
    Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 3 Aug. 2020
  • Vaccine verification in America has been janky from the start.
    Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 14 May 2021
  • But a group of birders are worried that a road project designed to improve U.S. 25 in London and fix a janky intersection where a state road joins up with the federal highway at a 45-degree angle, will spell death for the pair of birds.
    Joseph Gerth, The Courier-Journal, 2 May 2022
  • And then there’s everything about the janky sub and its rich passengers, who have risked their lives on what is essentially a novelty expedition.
    Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 20 June 2023
  • All three run the same interface, which has always been a little bit janky but has become increasingly busted as Google adds features and removes others.
    Nathan Edwards, The Verge, 8 May 2023
  • That oversight — a result of three different employees’ failure to check two boxes that were part of a workaround within Citi’s janky software — led to more than two years of litigation between the bank and the lenders.
    Allison Morrow, CNN, 14 Feb. 2024
  • The American constitutional structure is a janky mess, and the party is deeply split both ideologically and along class lines.
    Ryan Cooper, The Week, 7 June 2021
  • Character models look janky and lack detail, while common enemies repeat far too often.
    Mitch Wallace, Forbes, 13 May 2022
  • When covid threatened the already janky network of child-care centers available to parents, the nation finally stepped into action and expanded benefits to child-care centers.
    Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Opening the door to an unoccupied room where chemical reactions are bubbling beneath a janky robotic scaffold, Cronin reveals that the automation of chemistry is already underway, with a goal set on far more than industry efficiency.
    Jonathon Keats, Discover Magazine, 15 Oct. 2021
  • CarPlay, software that simplifies the often-janky car infotainment experience, began appearing in vehicles around 2014, followed by Android Auto about four years later.
    Nicole Nguyen, WSJ, 24 Apr. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'janky.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: