canal

canal — noun

1. a water channel built by people so that boats and ships can travel across land,

1.nounB1
Definition

a water channel built by people so that boats and ships can travel across land, or so that water reaches farms and crops

Example

The Watanabe family took a boat trip along the historic canal.

Farmers use this canal to bring water to their rice fields during the dry season.

collocation: bring water to fields

Common collocations
  • along the canal
  • by the canal
  • canal boat
  • canal path
  • dig a canal
  • build a canal
  • narrow canal
Synonyms
  • waterway

    a more general term for any navigable water route, not necessarily man-made

  • channel

    can refer to a natural or artificial passage, often used for narrower stretches of water

Usage Note

Often used with 'along', 'through', or 'by' when describing movement: 'walked along the canal', 'sailed through the canal', 'a house by the canal'.

Common Mistakes

Ships sailed through the canal in Panama.
Ships sailed through the Panama Canal.
'Panama Canal' is a proper name and takes a capital C.

2. a narrow tube inside a human or animal body through which air, food, or other su

2.nounB2
Definition

a narrow tube inside a human or animal body through which air, food, or other substances pass from one part to another

Example

Food travels through the alimentary canal after you swallow it.

alimentary canal — the digestive passage

The ear canal carries sound waves from the outer ear to the eardrum.

ear canal — part of the hearing system

Common collocations
  • alimentary canal
  • ear canal
  • birth canal
  • blocked canal
  • narrow canal
Synonyms
  • duct

    more technical, usually refers to a passage that carries a specific fluid (tear duct, bile duct)

  • passage

    a more general term for any path or channel in the body

Usage Note

Most commonly used in fixed medical combinations: 'alimentary canal', 'ear canal', 'birth canal'. Only the 'ear canal' appears frequently in everyday conversation.

Word family

  • canalize
    verbC1
  • canalization
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe a route for water, but they differ in construction, size, and purpose. A canal is always man-made and typically dug for boats or irrigation — the Suez Canal is a famous example. A channel can be either natural (the English Channel) or artificial, and it tends to be wider than a canal and may connect two larger bodies of water. Waterway is the broadest term and covers any navigable stretch of water, from rivers to canals to ocean routes. An aqueduct is a structure — often a bridge with a trough — built to carry water across a valley, not for boats. In daily use, people walk along a canal path but not along an aqueduct path; ships pass through channels and canals, not aqueducts.

canal ↗channel ↗waterway ↗aqueduct

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • canal system
  • canal network
  • Panama Canal

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

The word 'canal' entered English in the 1400s, coming through French from the Latin word 'canalis', meaning a channel, pipe, or groove for water. In Latin, 'canalis' itself likely came from 'canna', meaning a reed or tube — since reeds are naturally hollow and pipe-like. The anatomical meaning (a tube inside the body) developed in the 1600s as medical science borrowed the same water-channel image to describe passages in the human body.