waterway
Americannoun
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waterways
plural
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a river, canal, or other body of water serving as a route or way of travel or transport.
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Shipbuilding. (in a steel or iron vessel) a depressed gutter at the edge of the deck inside the bulwarks, used especially when the decking is wooden.
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a channel for vessels, as a fairway in a harbor.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of waterway
before 950; Middle English; Old English wæterweg. See water, way 1
Explanation
Any place you can navigate by boat is a waterway, whether it's a river, a stream, or a canal. The city of Venice, Italy is famous for having waterways instead of paved streets — to get around there, you'll need to hire a gondola instead of a taxi. Routes that boats routinely travel are waterways, and they're most likely to be referred to that way when those boats are transporting goods. Maritime waterways are made up of straits and canals connecting two large bodies of water (such as oceans), and inland waterways include long rivers like the Colorado and the Nile. The 3,000 mile-long Intracoastal Waterway is made up of bays, inlets, and sounds, hugging the Atlantic coast of the U.S. down to the Gulf of Mexico.
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:
"Event planning must therefore assume that a crocodile sighting is possible… No natural waterway in crocodile country can be guaranteed to be crocodile-free."
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Any attacks in the waterway are likely to make it less attractive to shippers.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
Each day, roughly 300 ships transit the waterway, which connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Hormuz transits are hard to measure, mostly because ships transiting the strategic waterway turn off their GPS-like signals for security measures and to avoid Iranian attacks.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
“The fabled Rhqyne,” said Tyrion when he glimpsed the slow green waterway from atop a rise.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
The bulk of the canal's construction work involved widening, deepening and modifying existing waterways, while a small section had to be excavated, Xinhua said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
On Thursday, the director of navel information, Capt Abiodun Folorunsho, warned thieves there was "no hiding place" from the navy, which patrols the waterways and coastal areas of the Niger Delta.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
River levels also fell sharply, with streamflow reaching record lows in waterways including the Rio Fajardo in northeastern Puerto Rico.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
Good scientific intentions can backfire, however, even when aimed at maintaining precious waterways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The impact would have knocked down every structure in the city and collapsed the underground waterways, damming the Uzumark that flows under our feet, and flooding the whole valley.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
