Uncanny Meaning
/ʌnˈkæni/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjStrange, and mysteriously unsettling (as if supernatural); weird.
adjCareless.
Sentence Examples
She bears an uncanny resemblance to Marilyn Monroe.
Her awkwardness was uncanny.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
Her ____ ability to predict the exact time of rain surprised the meteorologists.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He has an ____ ability to remember people's names, even if he has only met them once several many years ago today.
Word Origin & History
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).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny and fateful."
— 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 200:
"These men had some uncanny knack of knowing when the steel was right, and like many such things, it just could not be put into a textbook on the subject."
— 1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:
"The new iPhone promises “next level” photography with push-button ease. But the results look odd and uncanny."
— 2022 March 18, Kyle Chayka, “Have iPhone Cameras Become Too Smart?”, in The New Yorker:
"This uncontrollable possibility—the possibility of a certain loss of control—can, perhaps, explain why the uncanny remains a marginal notion even within psychoanalysis itself."
— 1982, Samuel Weber, The Legend of Freud, page 20:
"As is well known, Freud introduced the concept of the uncanny into psychoanalysis in 1919 and used The Sandman as a prime illustration for his definition."
— 1994, Sonu Shamdasani, Michael Münchow, Speculations after Freud, page 186:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Her ____ ability to predict the exact time of rain surprised the meteorologists.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He has an ____ ability to remember people's names, even if he has only met them once several many years ago today.