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

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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

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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

He began to imagine a colossal lighthouse sculpture, placed on a huge plinth at the canal entrance, in the form of an Egyptian peasant woman holding up a torch.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026

In 1869, the year the canal opened, he made a trip to Cairo to show his sketches to Isma’il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026

It appears the man may have entered the pipe from a canal that runs along the train tracks near Commerce and Cottage streets in Riverside, Hallgreen said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2026

The pipe lies below surface and runs parallel to the ground, draining into the canal.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2026

Hannah Relf made an inspection of the sandbags protecting her front door and went along to the end of the street to see how much the level of the canal had risen.

From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman

When researchers examined the dinosaur's limb bones, they identified numerous mineralized red blood cells inside vascular canals, the tiny passages that once contained blood vessels.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026

It’s become a battle in which the weapons are sandbags, water pumps, sand berms and drainage canals.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

As a child, Franzoy often went tubing on the river or splashed with playmates in gurgling irrigation canals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

The rain has fallen almost continually since Thursday afternoon, flooding roads and swelling Bangkok's canals, sending water into many homes and restaurants alongside them, AFP reporters saw.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

People got around by boat or used the crowded gangways and bridges that crossed the canals.

From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat

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

The canalling is managed by a Board of Commissioners.

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

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

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

When I got old enough, and had money enough, I was determined to go west and seek my fortune; for I always felt that canalling was, somehow, beneath what I wanted to do and become.

From Vandemark's Folly by Herbert Quick

Those of the latter are more generally found about our large towns and cities, and along the lines of canalling.

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

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