# canary

> English word · Noun · IPA /kəˈnɛəɹi/ · frequency rank #16,189

## Definitions
1. A small, usually yellow, finch (genus Serinus), a songbird native to the Canary Islands.
2. Any of various small birds of different countries, most of which are largely yellow in colour.
3. A female singer, soprano, a coloratura singer.
4. An informer or snitch; a squealer.
5. A light, slightly greenish, yellow colour.
6. A (usually yellow) capsule of the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital/pentobarbitone (nembutal).
7. A yellow sticker applied by the police to a vehicle to indicate it is unroadworthy.
8. Any test subject, especially an inadvertent or unwilling one. (From the mining practice of using canaries to detect dangerous gases.)
9. A value placed in memory such that it will be the first data corrupted by a buffer overflow, allowing the program to identify and recover from it.
10. A change that is tested by being rolled out first to a subset of machines or users before rolling out to all.
11. A light, sweet, white wine from the Canary Islands.
12. A lively dance, possibly of Spanish origin (also called canaries).
13. A sovereign (coin).
14. A previously-issued ticket, retained by a ticket-seller, conductor or driver and resold to a subsequent passenger as a means of defrauding the transport company.

## Etymology
From French canarie, from Spanish canario, from the Latin Canariae insulae (“Canary Islands”) (Spanish Islas Canarias); from the largest island Insula Canaria (“Dog Island" or "Canine Island”), named for its dogs, from canārius (“canine”), from canis (“dog”).

## Easily confused with
- **Cary** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canary-vs-cary)
- **carry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canary-vs-carry)
- **candy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canary-vs-candy)
- **canny** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canary-vs-canny)
- **clary** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canary-vs-clary)
- **canopy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canary-vs-canopy)
- **cleary** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canary-vs-cleary)
- **cavalry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canary-vs-cavalry)
- **cannery** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canary-vs-cannery)
- **Cana** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cana-vs-canary)
- **canal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canal-vs-canary)
- **Canada** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canada-vs-canary)
- **Canaan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canaan-vs-canary)
- **Calgary** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/calgary-vs-canary)
- **Calvary** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/calvary-vs-canary)

## Common misspellings (9)
`acnary`, `caanry`, `canarry`, `canaryy`, `canayr`, `cannary`, `canray`, `ccanary`, `cnaary`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/canary