English Explanatory Dictionary

canal

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
  2. A tubular channel within the body or within a plant.
  3. One of the faint, hazy markings resembling straight lines on early telescopic images of the surface of Mars; see Martian canals
verb
  1. To dig an artificial waterway in or to (a place), especially for drainage
  2. To travel along a canal by boat
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/kəˈnæl/ En-uk-canal.ogg /kəˈnɛl/ /kəˈnɔːl/

Word forms

canal canals canalling canalled

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French canal, from Old French canal, from Latin canālis (“channel; canal”), from canālis (“canal”), from canna (“reed, cane”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of channel.

Related words

channel channelization channelize canalization

Derived words

alar canal alimentary canal auditory canal birth canal C&D Canal canalage canal basin canal boat canal bridge canal coal Canal Foot canalicule canaliferous canaliform canalise canalize canaller canalman canal of Hering canal of Nuck canal of Schlemm canalogram canalography canalolith canalolithiasis canaloplasty canalotomy canalside Canal Street carpal canal central canal cervical canal cloud canal Corinth Canal ear canal external auditory canal femoral canal food canal Gaertner's canal Gartner's canal Haversian canal hyaloid canal incisive canal inguinal canal intercanal internal auditory canal intracanal lacrimal canal Laurer's canal love canal mandibular canal minicanal nanocanal nerve of the pterygoid canal neural canal neurenteric canal noncanal Panama Canal pterygoid canal radial canal
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