canoe
Americannoun
-
canoes
plural
-
any of various slender, open boats, tapering to a point at both ends, propelled by paddles or sometimes sails and traditionally formed of light framework covered with bark, skins, or canvas, or formed from a dug-out or burned-out log or logs, and now usually made of aluminum, fiberglass, etc.
-
any of various small, primitive light boats.
verb (used without object)
-
canoes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
canoed,
past participle, past
-
canoeing
present participle
-
to paddle a canoe.
-
to go in a canoe.
verb (used with object)
-
canoes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
canoed,
past participle, past
-
canoeing
present participle
idioms
noun
-
a light narrow open boat, propelled by one or more paddles
-
another word for waka
-
of the same tribe
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
canoesimple
-
canoessimple
-
have canoedperfect
-
has canoedperfect
-
am canoeingprogressive
-
are canoeingprogressive
-
is canoeingprogressive
-
have been canoeingperfect progressive
-
has been canoeingperfect progressive
Past
-
canoedsimple
-
had canoedperfect
-
was canoeingprogressive
-
were canoeingprogressive
-
had been canoeingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of canoe
1545–55; < French < Spanish canoa < Arawak; replacing canoa < Spanish
Explanation
A canoe is a narrow boat that you propel and steer by paddling. Most canoes are fairly light, so that one or two people can carry them easily to the water. A canoe is wide enough for one person to sit in front of another, and pointed at both ends. Paddlers sit or kneel in the canoe and push through the water with wide, usually wooden paddles to direct their path through the water. The word canoe comes, by way of the Spanish canoa, from the Haitian language known as Carib or Arawakan, canaoua.
Vocabulary lists containing canoe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
After working with a 17-foot canoe as a centerpiece for the Huntington exhibition, Saar told Curate LA that she felt compelled to return to small-scale pieces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Beth Littlewood, a former canoe polo champion, spent years pursuing a string of grievances against Nuffield Health, the company she worked for as a personal trainer at its Bridgend gym.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
Once it became clear that the survivors of the Mentor were American, the Ngarchelongese agreed to help them get home by building them a canoe to supplement their whaling boat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
Maine’s camp culture combines rustic canoe trips and campfires with a polished social ecosystem that brings convoys of black SUVs to the state every summer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
Building a new canoe was backbreaking, tedious work that cost the expedition precious time.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
She thinks the experience will be similar to the days when the area was explored using canoes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
If you want to imagine time standing still, start at Burke’s Canoe Trips, which has been renting canoes and kayaks for decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Since dawn, he and around 20 colleagues have paddled along the riverbanks in their weathered wooden canoes.
From Barron's ● May 20, 2026
Particularly marvelous are the voyages of the Polynesians who crossed the immense Pacific a thousand years ago in double-hulled canoes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
It was a much-needed victory as both canoes were saved.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
Garwood, who has canoed the length of the Mississippi River solo, an odyssey that lasted 84 days, has a deep reverence for his home ground, and the winter that is part of a Minnesotan’s identity.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2024
Some residents of the city of 8,000 slogged their way through waist-high water Tuesday; others canoed and kayaked along main streets to survey the scene.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 2023
The conservationist Aldo Leopold, who canoed through the delta in 1922, described it as “a hundred green lagoons” and said he paddled through waters “of a deep emerald hue.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2023
The first recorded run of the Middle Fork occurred in 1926; filmmaker Henry Weidner canoed it, taking four months and shooting 800 reels of film for a nature documentary.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 2022
That summer he played tennis, swam, fished, and canoed on the Potomac River.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Hearn, who competed in three Olympic Summer Games in canoeing, told US media he visited the refurbished pool after a long bike ride and noticed a piece of partially detached liner.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
On a recent morning, Britt Eastland was inspecting a trail at his family’s summer camp, anticipating another season of fishing, camping and canoeing just six weeks away.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026
Frank’s Paddlesport Livery is the first recreational kayaking, canoeing, and stand-up paddleboard operator to open downtown, thanks to the cleanup effort.
From Salon ● Jan. 13, 2026
He's into rowing and canoeing, so he's got a rowing machine and he'll send me a picture of an hour and 29 minutes and it's just the whole game.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2025
“Right outside of town. I think he was canoeing down the river and saw it fly by or something.”
From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
