How to Use janky in a Sentence

janky

adjective
  • Damn, that is one janky coffin.
    — Emma Specter, Vogue, 16 Dec. 2025
  • The movie looks downright janky at times, and not in a charming way.
    — Michael Nordine, Variety, 7 Mar. 2024
  • Because even the screen that you're supposed to put on your hand was so janky.
    — Michael Calore, WIRED, 19 Dec. 2024
  • Her janky vision only shows her half a headstone.
    — Jessica M. Goldstein, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2025
  • The wrong person asks for more instructions and builds janky workflows.
    — Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026
  • But sometimes chargers are few and far between, out of service, crowded, or just plain janky.
    — Ars Technica, 25 Dec. 2024
  • The scroll wheel is less janky, and the interface improvements are welcome.
    — Julian Chokkattu, WIRED, 27 Dec. 2024
  • Some of the scans missed the sun, as well, but all in all, enough were available to create a somewhat janky image of our star.
    — Phil Plait, Scientific American, 16 Jan. 2025
  • Your character uses an old computer and a kind of janky copy machine.
    — Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2024
  • The flood of YouTube obituary videos is a janky update on this practice.
    — WIRED, 22 Sep. 2023
  • Our apartment is a steal for the location and square footage, but the tradeoff is that everything is a bit janky.
    — R29 Team, refinery29.com, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Back in the ’50s and ’60s, the first batches were often janky messes.
    — Clive Thompson, Wired, 17 Jan. 2021
  • This isn’t some janky jumble that Rose has hauled cross-country in her beat-up car, then spit shined for performance.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 20 Dec. 2024
  • Of course, California’s not the only place where power is janky.
    — Christopher Null, Wired, 12 Nov. 2020
  • When Mckenzie complained about her janky teeth, Kerr popped out her upper dental bridge to make her laugh.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 July 2022
  • Still, not having to hunt down a power outlet at the airport or deal with those janky sockets on the plane will be worth the extra weight.
    — Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, The Verge, 30 Nov. 2024
  • Ready to swap out the janky old vacuum your mom passed down to you in college for a more current (and effective) option?
    — Erin Parker, Glamour, 25 Dec. 2021
  • But perhaps millions more hated the feature simply because of how janky the views display looked jammed next to retweets and likes.
    — Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 27 Dec. 2022
  • Bottom line, America’s grid is janky and outdated, Clements said.
    — Ella Nilsen, CNN, 18 Oct. 2024
  • Nothing could be shared or dissected among a community without janky daisy chains of hyperlinks.
    — Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026
  • The series’ style was transgressive, low-fi, and intentionally janky.
    — Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic, 26 Nov. 2025
  • Character models look janky and lack detail, while common enemies repeat far too often.
    — Mitch Wallace, Forbes, 13 May 2022
  • And the rapid pace of progress in the field means that laptop warriors can’t even take comfort in the fact that current versions of these programs and models may be janky and buggy.
    — Dylan Matthews, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
  • Seeing your peppermint brownie recipe in a janky online newspaper will not redistribute the world's wealth and power.
    — Chris Colin, Wired, 18 June 2020
  • Vaccine verification in America has been janky from the start.
    — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 14 May 2021
  • With Luis' support, Roach opens a janky massage parlor below the empanada joint in an effort to start a new chapter.
    — Pamela Avila, USA TODAY, 7 July 2023
  • The truly janky bits Heybike pegs the Tyson's range at 55 miles on pedal assist, and the battery can get a full charge in four to five hours.
    — Eric Bangeman, Ars Technica, 6 Oct. 2023
  • Combat can often be janky, with some weapons feeling floaty and imprecise, enemies sometimes bugging out, frozen in place for the party to massacre.
    — Hayes Madsen, Rolling Stone, 13 Feb. 2025
  • A lot of thought has been put into how a janky old phone or wireless earbuds might affect Emily and Sam’s communication.
    — Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times, 10 Mar. 2023
  • When the janky Internet connection goes out, his mom, Gabrielle Alston, tries to use the hotspot on her phone, but then her data runs out.
    — Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 27 Aug. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'janky.' 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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