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

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

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

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

But they were carried down a canal, passersby turning to stare as they were borne through the water.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

The study, titled "Heme signatures in mineralized red blood cells within vascular canals of a 115- million-year-old dinosaur bone," was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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 keeps falling and we are doing our best. We are trying to pump the water out, but the water in canals are full," he said on social media.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

This mosquito is almost entirely dependent on humans for its breeding areas—the still water found in water barrels, cisterns, canals, ponds, sewers, gutters, and outhouses.

From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy

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

It consists of canalling, improving river navigation, rail-roads, and common turnpike roads.

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

The canalling is managed by a Board of Commissioners.

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

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

The stern part was taken down the long upper level by a small tug, but teams were employed in towing for all the remaining portions of the canalling.

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

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