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canal

Pronunciation: /kəˈnæl/

The English word “canal” has 5 meanings listed here.

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

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French canal, from Old French canal, from Latin canālis (“channel, canal, narrow passage”), from canna (“reed, cane”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”). Doublet of channel. See also cane and -al.

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