Word of the Day: canny

The word canny has appeared in 108 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Feb. 20 in “At Billie Eilish’s Arena Show, the Only Spectacle Is Herself” by Lindsay Zoladz:

Billie Eilish’s latest album, “Happier Than Ever,” is a rather muted affair — acoustic ballads, fluttery, crooned tunes, even a hushed bossa nova number — so it was worth wondering how such material would translate in the arenas the 20-year-old pop phenom is playing on her Happier Than Ever: The World Tour. But the nearly 20,000 frenzied fans screaming along to every word at her triumphant Madison Square Garden concert on Saturday night proved that, at least when they’re performed live, there’s no such thing as a quiet Billie Eilish song.

… But an even more piercing moment came during a much quieter song. As Eilish sang her latest album’s opener, “Getting Older,” a montage of home videos documenting her and Finneas’s childhoods played on the huge screen at the back of the stage. During the second verse, her voice cracked and she broke down in tears. “You all just saw me cry, that’s embarrassing,” she said after the song was done. “Seeing myself as a baby and then seeing Madison Square Garden just got me crying.” But it was far from embarrassing, and in fact an expression of the canny relationship Eilish has cultivated with her fans: Such intimate expressions of emotion are, after all, a large part of what keeps them filling all those seats.

Daily Word Challenge

Can you correctly use the word canny in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

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If you want a better idea of how canny can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

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