What does uncanny mean?

Definitions for uncanny
ʌnˈkæn iun·can·ny

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word uncanny.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. eldritch, weird, uncanny, unearthlyadjective

    suggesting the operation of supernatural influences

    "an eldritch screech"; "the three weird sisters"; "stumps...had uncanny shapes as of monstrous creatures"- John Galsworthy; "an unearthly light"; "he could hear the unearthly scream of some curlew piercing the din"- Henry Kingsley

  2. preternatural, uncannyadjective

    surpassing the ordinary or normal

    "Beyond his preternatural affability there is some acid and some steel" - George Will; "his uncanny sense of direction"

Wiktionary

  1. uncannyadjective

    strange, and mysteriously unsettling (as if supernatural); weird

    He bore an uncanny resemblance to the dead sailor.

  2. uncannyadjective

    Careless.

  3. uncannyadjective

    Simultaneously familiar and foreign, often uncomfortably so; translation of Freud's German unheimlich ("no longer secret").

  4. Etymology: From ; thus “beyond one′s ken,” or outside one′s familiar knowledge or perceptions.

Wikipedia

  1. Uncanny

    The uncanny is the psychological experience of something as strangely familiar, rather than simply mysterious. It may describe incidents where a familiar thing or event is encountered in an unsettling, eerie, or taboo context.Ernst Jentsch set out the concept of the uncanny which Sigmund Freud elaborated on in his 1919 essay Das Unheimliche, which explores the eeriness of dolls and waxworks. For Freud, the uncanny locates the strangeness in the ordinary. Expanding on the idea, psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan wrote that the uncanny places us "in the field where we do not know how to distinguish bad and good, pleasure from displeasure", resulting in an irreducible anxiety that gestures to the Real. The concept has since been taken up by a variety of thinkers and theorists such as roboticist Masahiro Mori's uncanny valley and Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection.

ChatGPT

  1. uncanny

    Uncanny refers to something that is strange, mysterious or difficult to explain, often creating a sense of unease or discomfort due to its eerily familiar, yet alien, quality. It is characterized by an unsettling distortion of the familiar, causing an apprehensive feeling of strangeness or eeriness.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Uncannyadjective

    not canny; unsafe; strange; weird; ghostly

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Uncanny

    un-kan′i, adj. weird: unearthly: supposed to possess supernatural powers: dangerous, severe.—adv. Uncann′ily.—n. Uncann′iness.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of uncanny in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of uncanny in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of uncanny in a Sentence

  1. James Winnefeld:

    We're hemorrhaging information at a dizzying rate, evidenced by the uncanny similarity of some of our potential adversaries' new platforms to those we've been developing.

  2. Ray Attrill:

    The relationship between the size of the Fed's balance sheet, now some 11% bigger than where it was in late September, and the performance of U.S. risk assets is uncanny.

  3. Sebastian Strangio:

    For three decades he has outmaneuvered political opponents and international critics, while playing off the country's Western aid donors against a rising China, his long career has been marked by his incredible ideological flexibility an uncanny ability to twist and bend with the political wind.

  4. Yoshinori Mizutani:

    I had an uncanny feeling when I first saw them, i decided to work on 'Tokyo Parrots,' a project that captures a surreal and extraordinary urban landscape.

  5. Alex Falkingham:

    Andrea’s joyful energy brought smiles, happiness and laughter to everyone who was privileged to work with her and call her a friend, she had an uncanny ability to make any room she walked into a more positive place, with laughter filing the room.

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Translations for uncanny

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"uncanny." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/uncanny>.

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