uncanny

CEFRB2

/ʌnˈkæni/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Strangely familiar or unsettling in a way that is hard to explain.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Something that is simultaneously familiar and strange, typically leading to feelings of discomfort.

Examples

  • She bears an uncanny resemblance to Marilyn Monroe.

  • He bore an uncanny resemblance to the dead sailor.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
3
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meaning

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

More examples

In context

  • Her awkwardness was uncanny.

  • An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny and fateful.

  • 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.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Her blank ability to predict the exact time of rain surprised the meteorologists.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

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).