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:
It remains difficult to gauge how much crude is still moving through the waterway, as some tankers cross with their transponders switched off.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
The narrow waterway, which is crucial for oil exports, was just out of sight on our trip.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
This comes as Tehran maintains a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy and fertilizer transit.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
They seized large swathes of territory including the area around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key waterway for global shipping and, crucially, Saudi oil exports.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
My mountain and all its elevations were on it, so I was studying the contours for the waterway when she stuck her head in the door.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
This says it can discharge controlled amounts of oil and chemicals into the air and waterways.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
For this humble fishing village in Yemen, a tumbledown grouping of barely-there huts nestled between the water and an imposing mountain range, stands sentinel over one of the world’s most vital waterways.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
It’s possible that Beijing could agree to provide “support for a cease-fire, pressure to keep strategic waterways open and tighter controls on identified financial networks,” J.P.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
Traders and shippers are demanding premiums to navigate riskier waterways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
And indeed a study made in Holland in the early 1950’s provides support for the view that polluted waterways may carry a cancer hazard.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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