canoe

canoe — noun

1. a long, narrow, lightweight boat with sharp ends. To move it, you sit facing for

1.nounA2
Definition

a long, narrow, lightweight boat with sharp ends. To move it, you sit facing forward and dip the wide, flattened end of a long stick into the water, one side after the other. Unlike a rowboat, a canoe is light enough to carry over land between stretches of water.

Example

The Okonkwo family loaded their canoe with fishing nets before sunrise.

collocation: load a canoe (fill with gear)

A canoe can hold two people comfortably, but a third makes it unsteady.

Common collocations
  • paddle a canoe
  • rent a canoe
  • steer a canoe
  • load a canoe
  • a wooden canoe
  • a fiberglass canoe
  • tipped the canoe over
  • get into / climb into a canoe
Synonyms
  • dugout

    a canoe made by hollowing out a tree trunk; older and heavier than a typical canoe

  • pirogue

    a type of canoe used in swampy areas, often flat-bottomed; regional term

  • kayak

    similar shape but has an enclosed cockpit and is paddled with a double-bladed paddle; not interchangeable

Usage Note

Canoe is a count noun. It is typically contrasted with kayak (enclosed cockpit) and rowboat (oars instead of paddles).

Common Mistakes

He crossed the lake by a canoe.
He crossed the lake by canoe.
no article is used in the phrase 'by canoe' for method of travel.
She paddled the kayak with a double-bladed paddle.
She paddled the canoe with a single-bladed paddle.
canoes use single-bladed paddles; kayaks use double-bladed ones.

canoe — verb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Canoe, kayak, rowboat, and dinghy are all small watercraft, but they differ in design and how they are moved. A canoe is open-topped and paddled with a single-bladed paddle while facing forward — it is the lightest and most maneuverable of the four. A kayak has an enclosed cockpit and uses a double-bladed paddle; the rider sits lower in the water. A rowboat (or rowing boat) is moved with oars fixed to the sides, and the rower faces backward. A dinghy is a small general-purpose craft, often rubber or inflatable, used as a tender to a larger boat. For learners: if you sit facing forward with a single paddle, it is probably a canoe; if you sit in a closed cockpit with a two-bladed paddle, it is a kayak; if you pull oars while facing backward, it is a rowboat.

canoe ↗kayak ↗rowboatdinghy

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • by canoe
  • go canoeing
  • canoe trip
  • canoe paddle
  • canoe rental

Prepositions

Etymology

TaínoSpanishEnglish

Canoe entered English in the 1550s from Spanish 'canoa', which was borrowed from the Taíno (an indigenous Caribbean language) word 'kanawa' meaning a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk. European explorers across the Americas adopted the term for the diverse dugout and bark boats they encountered, and it later came to mean any narrow pointed paddle-boat.