UNCANNY

eldritch, weird, uncanny, unearthly

(adjective) suggesting the operation of supernatural influences; “an eldritch screech”; “the three weird sisters”; “stumps...had uncanny shapes as of monstrous creatures”- John Galsworthy; “an unearthly light”; “he could hear the unearthly scream of some curlew piercing the din”- Henry Kingsley

preternatural, uncanny

(adjective) surpassing the ordinary or normal; “Beyond his preternatural affability there is some acid and some steel” - George Will; “his uncanny sense of direction”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Adjective

uncanny (comparative uncannier, superlative uncanniest)

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

(UK dialectal) Careless.

Noun

uncanny

(psychology, psychoanalysis, Freud) Something that is simultaneously familiar and strange, typically leading to feelings of discomfort; translation of Freud's usage of the German "unheimlich" (literally "unsecret").

Usage notes

In common modern usage, "canny" and "uncanny" are no longer antonyms, although they are not synonyms.

Source: Wiktionary


Un*can"ny, a.

Definition: Not canny; unsafe; strange; weird; ghostly. Sir W. Scott.

– Un*can"ni*ness, n. G. Eliot.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

3 February 2025

CRAZY

(adjective) possessed by inordinate excitement; “the crowd went crazy”; “was crazy to try his new bicycle”


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Coffee Trivia

Decaffeinated coffee comes from a chemical process that takes out caffeine from the beans. Pharmaceutical and soda companies buy the extracted caffeine.

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