A spectrofluorimetric method has been developed for the determination of free $CN^-$ in real samples with fluorescent safranine-O. When safranine-O interacts electrostatistically with $CN^-$, the fluorescent intensity of safranine-O is decreased. Several experimental conditions such as pH of the sample solution and the amount of safranine-O were optimized. $Ag^+$ interfered higher than any other ions. Interference of $Ag^+$ could be disregarded because $Ag^+$ was scarcely contained or mostly complexed with $CN^-$ in selected real samples. With this proposed method, the linear range of $CN^-$ was from 5.0 to 110 ng/mL and the detection limit of $CN^-$ was 2.9 ng/mL. For validating this technique, real samples (Cu, Ag, Au electroplating wastewater, and untreated wastewater in university and in sewage treatment plant) were used. Recovery yields of 91.5%~106.0% were obtained. Based on experimental results, it is proposed that this technique can be applied to the practical determination of free $CN^-$.