canal

American  

[kuh-nal] / kəˈnæl /

noun

• canals
  plural

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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• canals
  plural

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

See Examples For:

canal canals canaled canalled canalling

Residents in Brentford have raised concerns about sewage flowing into the local canal network, with dead animals washing up over the summer.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

Brentford Community Boathouse events officer Kelly Everden, who volunteered on a clean-up operation organised by Keane, said the children who used the canal were worst affected.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

"The risk areas are those who live near canals. Every canal is now filled."

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

His surviving notes capture ordinary moments from daily life, including records of how much he spent on food for his children along the canal.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

They turn back and walk slowly down the canal, keeping along the tow-path all the way.

From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque

The city is built on former marshlands and is intersected by a network of canals, many of them heavily flooded by the rains.

From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026

The state also helped local agencies bring in diesel-powered pumps and other equipment to suck water out of rivers and into canals.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026

Data-center spending is greater than that for canals, railroads, and grid combined—creating jobs and stock-market wealth, while boosting inflation and crowding out housing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

The Venetian Resort, at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, is already a surreal place—the interior includes an indoor St. Mark’s Square with chlorine-blue canals, old-timey lampposts, and a painted blue sky.

From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026

Helmuth hears it in the crackling gray ice floes that drift through the rivers and narrow canals.

From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

The warmth at his heart annulled whatever of chill stole in at the grayness of the canaled streets of the northern city after the color and glow of Porto.

From Dreamers of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill

Hindu temples, for the many Guyanese descended from laborers from the Indian subcontinent, dot Georgetown’s canalled streets.

From New York Times ● May 9, 2010

And he should never be blocked in: he should at most be canalled.

From The Invisible Censor by Francis Hackett

We had a good deal of difficulty at first in our canalling, especially in meeting and passing vessels.

From A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River by Barlow Cumberland

The spirit of improvement throughout the United States, especially evidenced in canalling, and rail-roads, will, it is hoped, in a few years, open modes of communication, which as yet are wanting, with the markets.

From A New Guide for Emigrants to the West by John Mason Peck

Indeed, I never can believe I am at sea at all, on the Atlantic, the passages between New-York and Portsmouth being little more than so much canalling along a tow-path.

From Home as Found by James Fenimore Cooper

The canalling is managed by a Board of Commissioners.

From A New Guide for Emigrants to the West by John Mason Peck

The system of canalling is a system of slack-water navigation, but abhors stagnant water.

From Mexico and its Religion With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events Connected With Places Visited by Robert A. Wilson