canal

American  

[kuh-nal] / kəˈnæl /

noun

1. an artificial waterway for navigation, irrigation, etc.

2. a long narrow arm of the sea penetrating far inland.

3. a tubular passage or cavity for food, air, etc., especially in an animal or plant; a duct.

4. channel; watercourse.

5. Astronomy. one of the long, narrow, dark lines on the surface of the planet Mars, as seen telescopically from the earth.

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verb (used with object)

canalled, canaled, canalling, canaling

1. to make a canal through.

canal British  

/ kəˈnæl /

noun

1. an artificial waterway constructed for navigation, irrigation, water power, etc

2. any of various tubular passages or ducts

   the alimentary canal

3. any of various elongated intercellular spaces in plants

4. astronomy any of the indistinct surface features of Mars originally thought to be a network of channels but not seen on close-range photographs. They are caused by an optical illusion in which faint geological features appear to have a geometric structure

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verb

1. to dig a canal through

2. to provide with a canal or canals

Etymology

Origin of canal

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: “waterpipe, tubular passage,” from Latin canālis, perhaps equivalent to can(na) “reed, pipe” ( see cane) + -ālis -al ¹; canal def. 5 a mistranslation of Italian canali “channels,” the term used by G. V. Schiaparelli

Explanation

A canal is a long, man-made strip of water used for irrigation or boat access to a bigger body of water, like the famous Erie Canal, which connects the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Canal is related to the word channel, and all its different shades of meaning have to do with tunnel shaped spaces that carry liquid from one place to another. Besides man-made irrigation canals, canals that connect boat docks to rivers and oceans, or street-like canals in boat cities like Amsterdam, there are canals in your body, like your nasal canal, or the birth canal you came out of. It's also a verb meaning "to dig a canal."

Example Sentences

But Egypt lost toll revenues from the Suez Canal, which make up a large part of its income.

From Barron's • May 1, 2026

The sinking has damaged part of the Friant-Kern Canal, a major water conduit for farms, reducing its carrying capacity and requiring $326 million in repairs.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026

The analysts are expecting a “slow normalization” based on benchmarking today’s energy shock against every major one that’s taken place in the Middle East since the closure of the Suez Canal in 1956.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 20, 2026

Lying on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Djibouti serves as a gateway to the Suez Canal, one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

From BBC • Apr. 11, 2026

George Kirk, another code talker who had seen combat on the Canal, had given me that advice about our bulky hand-cranked TBX radios.

From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac