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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Native American History - Introductory
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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:
The canoe and kayak slalom paddle events for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics will take place at a white-water venue at the river complex.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
All tickets available for Oklahoma City’s softball and canoe slalom events were sold through for both drops.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Hearn, a 67 year-old white-water canoe racer from Bethesda, Md., has kept a low profile since Pirro’s filing Friday night, and his case hasn’t yet been thrown out by a judge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Hearn competed three times in the Olympics in the slalom canoe category, and won two world championships for the sport.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana were both in their late teens, both fishermen and canoe makers born on nearby islands.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
But even at Burke’s, things change: Demand is up for kayaks, down for the metal canoes, which are heavier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Then there are the boats or canoes themselves - generally old, weak, rickety wooden vessels that have often been used for years without upgrades or major repairs.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Observations show the people use narrow outrigger canoes, live in large communal huts, carry spears, bows and arrows, and wear fibre waistbelts, as well as necklaces and headbands.
From Barron's ● May 18, 2026
At noon on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 1806, five large canoes and a pirogue approached the township of St. Louis in the Louisiana Territory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
On the desk in the office, the paperwork I organized into folders is still stacked beside the computer, the book for signing out canoes still open to the last entry I recorded eleven days ago.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
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
Although Cherrie usually went hunting each morning and had added about a dozen more birds to the collection, he and Roosevelt didn’t see much wildlife as they canoed down the river.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
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
"I used to be a person who loved the outdoors, canoeing, kayaking and white water rafting to where I am now and I just want to get back to that."
From BBC ● May 10, 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
Fifteen miles to the southeast, in the leafy and pleasant lakeside community of Griinau, preparations for the Olympic rowing, canoeing, and kayaking events were also well under way.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
