Cunning

How to spell cunning

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cunning

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cunning mean?

1. adjectiveSkilled at achieving aims through clever and often deceptive means.
2. nounSkill in achieving one's ends by deceit or evasion; craftiness.

Cunning in a sentence

• adjective

  The cunning salesman talked the couple into a far larger loan than they needed.

• noun

  It took real cunning to negotiate the deal in his favour.

• adjective

  A cunning thief disabled the alarm before entering the warehouse.

• noun

  The fox is admired for its cunning in evading the hunters.

Where does cunning come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word grew out of the Old English verb cunnan, meaning 'to know' or 'to be able', the same ancestor that gives us the modern verb 'can' and the dialect word 'ken' for knowledge. In Middle English the present participle 'cunning' first meant simple learning or knowledge, so a 'cunning man' was originally a knowledgeable or skilful one rather than a sneaky one. Over the 1300s and 1400s the sense darkened: skill in a craft slid toward skill in deception and trickery, and by the time of Shakespeare 'cunning' chiefly described sly cleverness. The word is closely related to German 'können' (to be able) and 'kennen' (to know), which shows its deep Germanic roots in the idea of competence. The spelling, with its doubled n and -ing ending, simply preserves that original participle of cunnan, which is worth remembering since it is the doubled consonant that trips writers up.

How the word is built

• cunn- (from Old English cunnan: to know, to be able)
• -ing (forming adjective/noun)