janky

adjective

ˈjaŋ-kē 

jankier; jankiest

informal

: of very poor quality : junky

… most of the vehicles on Bismuth were janky unregistered pick-ups that reeked of fish water.

—Corwin Ericson

also : not functioning properly or adequately : faulty

Hahn was incredibly down-to-earth in her normal-looking home with her somewhat janky Wi-Fi.

—Chris Murphy

"My family had medical debt, because we live in the jankiest medical system in the developed world."

—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Examples of janky in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As such, my impressions of Oblivion before this Remaster have been guided by old critical reactions and the many memes calling attention to the game's somewhat janky engine. —ArsTechnica, 26 Apr. 2025

But sometimes chargers are few and far between, out of service, crowded, or just plain janky. —Ars Technica, 25 Dec. 2024

And the rapid pace of progress in the field means that laptop warriors can’t even take comfort in the fact that current versions of these programs and models may be janky and buggy. —Dylan Matthews, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018

Until late in the play, the set, by the design collective dots, consists only of black walls and a janky trailer door, signifying the characters’ fractured, unsheltered childhoods. —Jesse Green, New York Times, 25 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

of uncertain origin

Note: Early records of the word indicate an origin in African-American speech. Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, hypothesizes that it represents "a regional, affected, or colloquial pronunciation of junky entry 1." According to Clarence Major, in Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang (New York, 1994), it is "probably a variant of jinxed" (see jinx entry 2).

First Known Use

1989, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for janky

• cranky
• hanky
• lanky
• yankee