Myrtle R. White
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Uncanny describes that which unsettles us, such as disquieting observations, or mysterious situations and circumstances. Strip the word of its prefix, though, and you're left with canny, a word that can be used as a synonym for clever and prudent. While canny and uncanny don't appear to be antonyms, they both come from an early Scots word canny meaning "free from risk; wise, prudent, cautious." And in Scots, canny has for centuries had a secondary meaning more similar to that of its mysterious cousin: the Oxford English Dictionary defines a sense of the word used chiefly in negative constructions (e.g., “not canny”) to describe what is not safe to be involved with, or more broadly, what is not in accordance with what is right or natural, as in "the idea is not canny." Rather uncanny.
Synonyms of uncanny
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
Literary Hub, 8 June 2026
Eastern Forest Tick Examined under a microscope, this minuscule parasite bears an uncanny resemblance to your childhood bully, right down to its mullet and Van Halen T-shirt.
—Jay Ruttenberg, New Yorker, 8 June 2026
In an uncanny coincidence, Bateson had played a small role as an assistant in an NYU medical center scene in The Exorcist five years earlier.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 6 June 2026
More than any other character he’s created, Stallone has an uncanny knack for knowing what makes Rocky, and the characters that orbit him, really tick.
—Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 5 June 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Uncanny.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/uncanny. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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uncanny
adjective
