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

All of this janky electrical goodness did not come cheap. —Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik, Quartz, 11 June 2024

Using a less janky version of the Rotoscoping style of Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, the animation allows for literal flights of fancy while staying grounded in the period. —Scott Tobias, Vulture, 7 June 2024

There are a few extremely expensive high-profile keycaps from discontinued keyboards and some janky aftermarket sets. —Nathan Edwards, The Verge, 18 Apr. 2024

The most striking addition to their dark jumble shop are several balls, such as a soccer ball and the bright red sphere of a punching bag, on stands, which turns the whole room into a janky orrery—a model of a planetary system—with a Spalding basketball playing the Earth. —Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2024

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