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
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.
The bottleneck of ships waiting to move through the vital waterway includes more than 425 oil and fuel tankers and nearly 20 vessels carrying liquefied natural gas.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
Oil prices plunged on Wednesday after the announcement of the agreement that includes the reopening of the key Strait of Hormuz waterway.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
Around 25% to 35% of the global trade of fertilizer materials passes through the waterway.
From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026
She added that the president’s expectation is that the waterway will be “reopened immediately, quickly and safely.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026
Crumbling brick warehouses, oil storage tanks, rusting cranes, and gritty factories lined both sides of the waterway.
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.
