See canary in a coal mine on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "An allusion to caged canaries (birds) that miners would carry down into the mine tunnels with them. If dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide collected in the mine, the gases would kill the canary before killing the miners, thus providing a warning to exit the tunnels immediately.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "canaries in a coal mine",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "canaries in coal mines",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "canaries in a coal mine",
"2": "canaries in coal mines",
"head": "canary in a coal mine"
},
"expansion": "canary in a coal mine (plural canaries in a coal mine or canaries in coal mines)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
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{
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},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
"parents": [],
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},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with French translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Japanese translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003 April, “Saving the St. Joe”, in Field & Stream:",
"text": "\"A mussel is a canary in a coal mine,\" Clemens explained. \"When the freshwater mussels are healthy, it indicates good water quality.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2008, Jean Haner, The Wisdom of Your Face: Change Your Life With Chinese Face Reading!, Hay House, published 2008, →ISBN, page 133:",
"text": "On the job, she was like a canary in a coal mine: If the subtle energy wasn't in balance, she was the first to notice.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009 April, Steve Kandell, “What Makes U2 Run?”, in Spin:",
"text": "Thanks to rampant real estate development that revitalized the city starting in the '90s, Dublin has been something of a canary in a coal mine with regard to the global financial meltdown — the credit crunch hit here early and hard.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Something whose sensitivity to adverse conditions makes it a useful early indicator of such conditions; something which warns of the coming of greater danger or trouble by a deterioration in its health or welfare."
],
"id": "en-canary_in_a_coal_mine-en-noun-lweQO30-",
"links": [
[
"sensitivity",
"sensitivity"
],
[
"adverse",
"adverse"
],
[
"indicator",
"indicator"
],
[
"deterioration",
"deterioration"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) Something whose sensitivity to adverse conditions makes it a useful early indicator of such conditions; something which warns of the coming of greater danger or trouble by a deterioration in its health or welfare."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "warrant canary"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "climate canary"
},
{
"word": "miner's canary"
},
{
"word": "canary in the coal mine"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "kanárče vǎv vǎ́glištna mína",
"sense": "early indicator",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "кана́рче във въ́глищна ми́на"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "early indicator",
"word": "kaivoksen kanarialintu"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "early indicator",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "canari dans une mine de charbon"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "early indicator",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "signe avant-coureur"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "early indicator",
"word": "kanári a szénbányában"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "tankō no kanaria",
"sense": "early indicator",
"word": "炭鉱のカナリア"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-canary in a coal mine.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9c/En-au-canary_in_a_coal_mine.ogg/En-au-canary_in_a_coal_mine.ogg.mp3",
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],
"word": "canary in a coal mine"
}
{
"etymology_text": "An allusion to caged canaries (birds) that miners would carry down into the mine tunnels with them. If dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide collected in the mine, the gases would kill the canary before killing the miners, thus providing a warning to exit the tunnels immediately.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "canaries in a coal mine",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "canaries in coal mines",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
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},
"expansion": "canary in a coal mine (plural canaries in a coal mine or canaries in coal mines)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "warrant canary"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with quotations",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Bulgarian translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with Hungarian translations",
"Terms with Japanese translations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003 April, “Saving the St. Joe”, in Field & Stream:",
"text": "\"A mussel is a canary in a coal mine,\" Clemens explained. \"When the freshwater mussels are healthy, it indicates good water quality.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2008, Jean Haner, The Wisdom of Your Face: Change Your Life With Chinese Face Reading!, Hay House, published 2008, →ISBN, page 133:",
"text": "On the job, she was like a canary in a coal mine: If the subtle energy wasn't in balance, she was the first to notice.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009 April, Steve Kandell, “What Makes U2 Run?”, in Spin:",
"text": "Thanks to rampant real estate development that revitalized the city starting in the '90s, Dublin has been something of a canary in a coal mine with regard to the global financial meltdown — the credit crunch hit here early and hard.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Something whose sensitivity to adverse conditions makes it a useful early indicator of such conditions; something which warns of the coming of greater danger or trouble by a deterioration in its health or welfare."
],
"links": [
[
"sensitivity",
"sensitivity"
],
[
"adverse",
"adverse"
],
[
"indicator",
"indicator"
],
[
"deterioration",
"deterioration"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) Something whose sensitivity to adverse conditions makes it a useful early indicator of such conditions; something which warns of the coming of greater danger or trouble by a deterioration in its health or welfare."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-canary in a coal mine.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9c/En-au-canary_in_a_coal_mine.ogg/En-au-canary_in_a_coal_mine.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/En-au-canary_in_a_coal_mine.ogg"
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{
"audio": "EN-UK canary in a coalmine.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c8/EN-UK_canary_in_a_coalmine.ogg/EN-UK_canary_in_a_coalmine.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/EN-UK_canary_in_a_coalmine.ogg"
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],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "climate canary"
},
{
"word": "miner's canary"
},
{
"word": "canary in the coal mine"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "kanárče vǎv vǎ́glištna mína",
"sense": "early indicator",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "кана́рче във въ́глищна ми́на"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "early indicator",
"word": "kaivoksen kanarialintu"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "early indicator",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "canari dans une mine de charbon"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "early indicator",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "signe avant-coureur"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "early indicator",
"word": "kanári a szénbányában"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "tankō no kanaria",
"sense": "early indicator",
"word": "炭鉱のカナリア"
}
],
"word": "canary in a coal mine"
}
Download raw JSONL data for canary in a coal mine meaning in All languages combined (4.2kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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