Word of the Day

: March 17, 2018

uncanny

adjective un-KAN-ee

What It Means

1 : seeming to have a supernatural character or origin : eerie, mysterious

2 : being beyond what is normal or expected : suggesting superhuman or supernatural powers

uncanny in Context

Our waiter had an uncanny resemblance to the creepy villain in the film we had just seen.

"One of the premier shape-shifters of his generation of actors, able to convincingly play an uncanny variety of characters, Paul Dano would seem to have slipped easily into yet another role: that of accomplished director." — Kenneth Turan, The Portland Press Herald, 28 Jan. 2018

Did You Know?

Weird and eerie are synonyms of uncanny, but there are subtle differences in the meanings of the three words. Weird may be used to describe something that is generally strange or out of the ordinary. Eerie suggests an uneasy or fearful consciousness that some kind of mysterious and malign powers are at work, while uncanny, which debuted in the 18th century, implies disquieting strangeness or mysteriousness. English also has a word canny, but canny and uncanny should not be interpreted as opposites. Canny, which first appeared in English in the 16th century, means "clever," "shrewd," or "prudent," as in "a canny lawyer" or "a canny investment."