as in informant
a person who provides information about another's wrongdoing
a canary who was singing and giving up the names of some of the city's most notorious drug lords
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of canary
The Russell 2000, the small-cap index, is the canary in the coal mine.
—
Robert Barone, Forbes.com, 21 July 2025
But as Malik Rahim puts it, New Orleans was just the canary in the American coal mine.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 22 July 2025
But the small-cap Russell 2000, the canary in the coal mine, and the old economy industrials, the DJIA, appear to be singing from a different hymn book.
—Robert Barone, Forbes.com, 21 July 2025
On her laptop, a video played of a jolly British woman trying on all the yellow items in her closet—saffron, amber, daffodil, canary, flax.
—Mona Awad, New Yorker, 20 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for canary
Robert Barone, Forbes.com, 21 July 2025
But as Malik Rahim puts it, New Orleans was just the canary in the American coal mine.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 22 July 2025
But the small-cap Russell 2000, the canary in the coal mine, and the old economy industrials, the DJIA, appear to be singing from a different hymn book.
—Robert Barone, Forbes.com, 21 July 2025
On her laptop, a video played of a jolly British woman trying on all the yellow items in her closet—saffron, amber, daffodil, canary, flax.
—Mona Awad, New Yorker, 20 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for canary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for canary
Noun
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Additionally, deputies maintained a system to conceal, manage and reward those informants.—
Tony Saavedra,
Oc Register,
29 July 2025
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Marino ended up serving as a confidential informant, wearing multiple wires that captured sound and video.—
Lynsey Eidell,
People.com,
22 July 2025
Noun
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Option 2: If one prisoner informs while the other stays silent, the informer will go free while the silent one receives the harshest sentence.—
Michael Ashley,
Forbes.com,
29 July 2025
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Over the past eight decades, the CCP has constructed a vast network of millions of informers and spies whose often unpaid work has been critical to the regime’s survival.—
Minxin Pei,
Foreign Affairs,
6 Feb. 2024
Noun
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After more than two hours of flying rats, the toss was still going strong.—
Nathaniel Rich,
Harpers Magazine,
20 Aug. 2025
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This presented a conundrum for the rats: go for the reward or avoid the punishment.—
Nicole Lipkin,
Forbes.com,
19 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Canary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/canary. Accessed 27 Aug. 2025.
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