canny
In Geordie: nice, pleasant, agreeable.
Seen in the wild
Safe, stylish, and space-saving lift solutions for modern homes are now easier to access with #Home #Lifts #New #Zealand by Canny Elevator. Designed for comfort and convenience, these home lifts feature smooth perform…
Meanwhile everyone else’s overseas holidays are cancelled, due to fuel shortages. Canny wait till Scotland🏴is Independent. Get this shower in the bin.
Please help [improve this article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Canny_edge_detector "Special:EditPage/Canny edge detector") by [adding citations to reliable sources](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hel…
Canny** (born in 1958) is an Australian [computer scientist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_scientist "Computer scientist"), and [Paul E Jacobs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_E._Jacobs "Paul E.
We help teams keep track of feedback from their users.<br>See a live example here: [https://kitsu.canny.io/feature-requests](https://kitsu.canny.io/feature-requests)<br>Homepage: [https://canny.io](https://canny.io/)<…
Definitions
In Geordie: nice, pleasant, agreeable. "A canny lad" = a decent guy. "Canny good" = quite good. Also used in broader Northern English. Distinct from Scots/Northern English "canny" meaning shrewd.
"He's a canny bloke."
“Safe, stylish, and space-saving lift solutions for modern homes are now easier to access with #Home #Lifts #New #Zealand by Canny Elevator. Designed for comfort and convenience, these home lifts feature smooth performance, quiet operation cannyelevator.co.nz/standard-ser...”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Meanwhile everyone else’s overseas holidays are cancelled, due to fuel shortages. Canny wait till Scotland🏴is Independent. Get this shower in the bin.”
— Bluesky· May 2026
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Show 7 more dictionary-style senses (imported)
Careful, prudent, cautious.
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Gentle, quiet, steady.
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Gently, quietly; carefully, skilfully.
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Very, considerably; quite, rather.
“Please help [improve this article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Canny_edge_detector "Special:EditPage/Canny edge detector") by [adding citations to reliable sources](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners "Help:Referencing for beginners").”
“Canny** (born in 1958) is an Australian [computer scientist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_scientist "Computer scientist"), and [Paul E Jacobs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_E._Jacobs "Paul E.”
“We help teams keep track of feedback from their users.<br>See a live example here: [https://kitsu.canny.io/feature-requests](https://kitsu.canny.io/feature-requests)<br>Homepage: [https://canny.io](https://canny.io/)<br>The office hours was a great experience!”
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Sounding as if it is coming through a tin can.
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Knowing, shrewd, astute.
"canny" means knowing, shrewd, astute. It is one of many casual words teens pick up from friends, social media, music or sport, and on its own it carries no particular warning. If you hear your teen use it, it is fair to ask what they mean by it in their friend group, since meanings drift quickly. Asking out of curiosity rather than alarm tends to keep the conversation open and useful.
"canny" is informal English meaning knowing, shrewd, astute. It is used widely across English varieties. A more formal or neutral equivalent would be something like "knowing" expressed in standard vocabulary. A common mistake is to assume "canny" can replace its standard equivalent in every register; keep it for spoken or casual situations and use the formal form in writing. If you are a B2 or C1 learner, it is useful to recognise this word when you hear or read it, but think carefully about whether the situation really calls for it before using it yourself.
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Friendly, pleasant, fair, agreeable; funny.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
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Semantically related
- ca canny68%
(Scotland) To go carefully or slowly; to take care.
- cannet66%
Geordie dialect word meaning 'cannot' or 'can't', following the Tyneside pattern of contracted negatives. Geordie dialect (associated with Newcastle-upon-Tyne and surrounding areas) has a distinctive set of contractions and pronunciations that can be near-incomprehensible to outsiders. 'Cannet' sits naturally alongside 'divvent' (don't) and 'shouldna' as part of the dialect's highly recognizable and grammatically consistent character. Instantly recognizable as Geordie to any British ear.
- conny65%
(Scotland, archaic) Brave; fine; canny.