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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

uncanny.

Strange, and mysteriously unsettling (as if supernatural); weird.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ʌnˈkæni/US
  1. Strange, and mysteriously unsettling (as if supernatural); weird.

    He bore an uncanny resemblance to the dead sailor.
  2. Careless.

    UK · dialectal
Where this word comes from

From un- + canny; thus “beyond one's ken,” or outside one's familiar knowledge or perceptions. Compare Middle English unkanne (“unknown”). In the noun sense a translation of Sigmund Freud's usage of German unheimlich (Das Unheimliche, 1919).

noun/ʌnˈkæni/US
  1. Something that is simultaneously familiar and strange, typically leading to feelings of discomfort.

Where this word comes from

From un- + canny; thus “beyond one's ken,” or outside one's familiar knowledge or perceptions. Compare Middle English unkanne (“unknown”). In the noun sense a translation of Sigmund Freud's usage of German unheimlich (Das Unheimliche, 1919).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.