plural canaries
1
: a Canary Islands usually sweet wine similar to Madeira
2
: a lively 16th century court dance
3
: a small finch (Serinus canaria synonym S. canarius) of the Canary Islands that is usually greenish to yellow and is kept as a cage bird and singer
4
slang
: informer sense 2
Examples of canary in a Sentence
a canary who was singing and giving up the names of some of the city's most notorious drug lords
Recent Examples on the Web
From tropical parrots and toucans to charming songbirds like swallows and canaries, colorful avian creatures are poised to soar onto our homes’ walls this year.
—
Celia San Miguel, USA TODAY, 11 Mar. 2025
The Clock Is Ticking Shopify’s hiring policy is the canary in the corporate coal mine.
—Roger Dooley, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025
Canary Tokens Enable canary tokens for domain monitoring.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 7 Apr. 2025
Image Image The canary in the coal mine CoreWeave just pulled off the first big initial public offering this year — and the results were far from heartening.
—Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for canary
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Celia San Miguel, USA TODAY, 11 Mar. 2025
The Clock Is Ticking Shopify’s hiring policy is the canary in the corporate coal mine.
—Roger Dooley, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025
Canary Tokens Enable canary tokens for domain monitoring.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 7 Apr. 2025
Image Image The canary in the coal mine CoreWeave just pulled off the first big initial public offering this year — and the results were far from heartening.
—Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for canary
Cite this Entry
“Canary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/canary. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
canary
noun
ca·nary
kə-ˈne(ə)r-ē 
plural canaries
: a small usually yellow or greenish finch native to the Canary Islands that is often kept in a cage
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