waterway
Americannoun
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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
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.
Days after the war began, Iran shut the narrow waterway - the only way out of the Gulf - and refused to let anyone through without its express permission.
From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026
While both sides continue to exchange proposals, key sticking points remain, including Iran's nuclear programme, demands for sanctions relief and the future of shipping through the vital waterway.
From Barron's • Jun. 1, 2026
The strait is the most critical energy transit chokepoint in the world, with about 20% of the global oil flows passing through the narrow waterway that borders Iran.
From MarketWatch • May 30, 2026
The strait is a key waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil is typically transported.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
Once they passed through a town where the police were searching all the boats that came along the waterway, and holding up the traffic in both directions.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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.
