canary in the coal mine
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.39 in modern English
31
Scrabble Score
19
Letters
3
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Alternative form of canary in a coal mine.
Example Sentences
- "The second canary in the coal mine — along with the Arctic— is Antarctica, the largest mass of ice on the planet by far."
- "Many authors state, almost as a truism, that amphibians are more vulnerable to environmental insults than are other vertebrates and therefore might serve as a kind of “canary in the coal mine,” an indicator of environmental degradation (e.g., Carroll 1999)."
- "Sex is the canary in the coal mine. It's the first thing to go when a marriage is in trouble."