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.
A two-week ceasefire was agreed on Tuesday evening on the condition that "safe passage" through the narrow waterway is guaranteed - but only a few vessels have since crossed.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
A key issue will be the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway into the Gulf through which one-fifth of the world's oil transits -- and where Iran has demonstrated it can exert key leverage.
From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said traffic through the waterway during the two-week cease-fire will be under the oversight of Iran’s armed forces.
From The Wall Street Journal • 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
Swinging back and forth across the great waterway, she searched for a cliff like the one she had been raised on.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
