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:
The rise comes after prices fell by 7% last week, after talks between Iran and Oman on re-opening the contested waterway.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
"US forces are monitoring the area closely and remain prepared to protect the free flow of commerce through this essential waterway," he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
Larak Island is just offshore from the key port of Bandar Abbas and sits right on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global shipping.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
Army Corps of Engineers to upgrade the waterway, which yielded $4 billion in tolls in 2025.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
By American standards, the Delaware is not a particularly imposing waterway, but it has one almost unique characteristic.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
As the rivers, and the world, churned onward, new threats to the health of the waterways have emerged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Authorities have recommended measures including providing safer boats and life jackets, dredging waterways, deploying water guards at jetties and terminals, and ensuring boat operators are properly trained and licensed.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The road where the otter was injured crosses several waterways that the animals often use, Pedrioli said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
"There's a noticeable change in habitats, mainly because of human intervention ... but also the direct impacts of climate change, especially around waterways," said Gray.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
There’s a few blue lines, like waterways, and one glowing green dot, no bigger than a seed.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
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.
