cani
Spanish, noun
cani is spelled C-A-N-I (4 letters) and appears about once in every 5 million words in written Spanish, the 81,768th most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Cani is a Spanish masculine noun meaning “chav, townie/towny (working-class youth, especially one associated with aggression, poor education, and a perceived "common" taste in…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a tilde, cañí is a different word: “Gypsy”. The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Tipo de personaje urbano que se da (o daba) en España, durante los años 90 y 2000, y que generó toda una…”.
What does cani mean in English?
noun
- 1
Spaincolloquialderogatorymasculinechav, townie/towny (working-class youth, especially one associated with aggression, poor education, and a perceived "common" taste in clothing and lifestyle)
adjective
- 1
femininemasculineGypsy
Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Spanish dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Propio de o relativo a la etnia rom, mal llamada gitana.
noun: 1. Tipo de personaje urbano que se da (o daba) en España, durante los años 90 y 2000, y que generó toda una subcultura alternativa. Se caracterizaba por su comportamiento superficial, con muy baja educación y cultura, con una elevada agresividad y con tendencia a cometer delitos o provocar enfrentamientos, y su manera de vestir, casi siempre ataviado con pantalones de chándal, gorra y adornos de oro.
The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.
Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of cani
- canis plural
- choni feminine
- chonis feminine plural
- cañíes feminine masculine plural
- cañís feminine masculine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is cani in Spanish?
cani appears about once in every 5 million words in written Spanish.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).