How to Use canny in a Sentence

canny

adjective
  • The film makes canny use of Short’s cassette tape.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 13 Sep. 2025
  • So does Rivers, one of the canniest readers of the field.
    — Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic, 18 Dec. 2025
  • In terms of how the series is structured, Ryan has made some canny choices.
    — Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 23 Mar. 2023
  • The dream of Unicorn perfection was put on hold while these dudes brought the big man back in canny ways.
    — Corbin Smith, Rolling Stone, 22 June 2023
  • The owner has a passion for boats and was canny about the potential in small spaces.
    — Jo Rodgers, ELLE Decor, 19 Oct. 2022
  • How does the canny home landscaper deal with this conundrum?
    — Melissa Minton, Architectural Digest, 10 Mar. 2026
  • The canny viewer soon learns to let a few episodes pile up and watch them in an uninterrupted rush.
    — Graham Hillard, The Washington Examiner, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Reid was a tough, canny career politician who was unable to galvanize a crowd.
    — Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2022
  • Styles cements himself as a canny songwriter as well as a mischievous charmer.
    — Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 22 Dec. 2022
  • The soundtrack dropped a month before the film, an odd way to orchestrate a release, but a canny move in this case.
    — Travis Atria, Rolling Stone, 11 July 2022
  • Godzilla from May 21 to March 31 turned out to be a canny one.
    — Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 6 Apr. 2021
  • Suing people who were struggling even before the pandemic may turn out to be a canny move.
    — Justin Scheck, WSJ, 7 Apr. 2021
  • Its canny use of perspective would have made Eckersberg proud.
    — Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2023
  • Deploying a top-notch slutty house-meets-electro record is one of the canniest moves he’s ever made.
    — Hattie Lindert, Pitchfork, 15 May 2026
  • This was his first fashion partnership, which is a canny signing indeed by Boss.
    — Luke Leitch, Vogue, 24 Sep. 2021
  • Robot makers of any era would have loved to plug a canny, practical brain into robot bodies.
    — David Berreby, Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2024
  • The canny Pahani and his team were, however, prepared.
    — Baz Bamigboye, Deadline, 24 Oct. 2025
  • This may add little to our cultural heritage but quite a bit to the bottom lines of these companies’ cannier users.
    — Rob Reid, Ars Technica, 9 Mar. 2023
  • Her success comes down to her canny mix of razor-sharp tailoring and of-the-moment sensual edge.
    — Emily Farra, Vogue, 15 Dec. 2021
  • In that light, Harbour’s choice to take on the role of Floyd seems like a canny public-relations coup.
    — Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 24 Apr. 2026
  • How to be canny, like the workers of the past, and how to be conservationists, like commoners.
    — Eula Biss, The New Yorker, 8 June 2022
  • My heart is filled with phrases that dazed in their day, words in canny order, solving clouds and mazes of blundering expression.
    — Rex Wilder, National Review, 11 Aug. 2022
  • In a canny performance, Morman also made sure Hoke was all too human, not a saint.
    — Matthew J. Palm, orlandosentinel.com, 22 Dec. 2021
  • Byron’s a canny, bold, and incisive critic.
    — Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 27 Apr. 2026
  • And the film works its way toward a finale of more stoic pathos than might be expected from such a canny franchise extension.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 5 Mar. 2026
  • This enjoyably canny thriller is kind of Freeway meets Shadow of a Doubt.
    — Marshall Heyman, Vulture, 23 June 2021
  • Veltman is canny and dependable.
    — Andy Naylor, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2025
  • But Tiafoe responded with some canny serving, and Alcaraz just missed two forehands wide that evened the match.
    — Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 10 Sep. 2022
  • From the first gold rush onwards, canny operators have recognized that the safest way to make your fortune is to sell picks and shovels.
    — David Prosser, Forbes, 31 Jan. 2022
  • But Ma has been deftly drawn as a canny realist and problem solver—not the kind of person to indulge in daydreams.
    — Tope Folarin, The Atlantic, 8 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'canny.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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