canal
/kəˈnæl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/kəˈnal/
canal noun: an artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
Noun
canal (plural canals)
- An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
- A tubular channel within the body or within a plant.
- The fossilised jaw of T. trusleri has a huge canal running through it and that’s believed to have carried all the nerve and related tissue needed for the sense of electroception.2022 March 29, Karen McGee, “Stunning breakthrough: the platypus and echidnas came from the South Pole”, in Australian Geographic
- One of the faint, hazy markings resembling straight lines on early telescopic images of the surface of Mars; see Martian canals
Verb
canal (third-person singular simple present canals, present participle canalling, simple past and past participle canalled)
- To dig an artificial waterway in or to (a place), especially for drainage
- In the mangrove-type salt marsh, the entire marsh must be canaled or impounded.1968, Louisiana State University, Proceedings, page 165
- To travel along a canal by boat
- Near Rotterdam we canalled by Delfthaven.1905, William Yoast Morgan, A Journey of a Jayhawker, page 211
Proper noun capitalized: Canal
Canal (plural Canals)
- A surname.
canal meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
canal in Hindi
- artificial waterway
- नहर nahar, नाला nālā
canal in Tamil
- artificial waterway
- கால்வாய் kālvāy, வாய்க்கால் vāykkāl
canal in Marathi
- कालवा, कालवे
canal in Urdu
- artificial waterway
- نہر nahar
More languagesFewer languages
- canal in Bengali
- খাল khal
- canal in Telugu
- కాలువ kāluva
- canal in Malayalam
- നീർച്ചാൽ nīṟccāl
- canal in Kannada
- ಕಾಲುವೆ, ನಾಲೆ, ಉದ್ದಿ, ಕಟ್ಟುಕಾಲುವೆ
- canal in Punjabi
- ਨਹਿਰ nahir
- canal in Gujarati
- નહેર, નહેરો
- canal in Odia
- କେନାଲ
- canal in Sanskrit
- खल्ल khalla, कुल्या kulyā
- canal in Assamese
- খাল khal, নলা nola
- canal in Nepali
- कुलो kulo
- canal in Pashto
- مجرا majrá
- canal in Arabic
- قَنَاة qanāh
- canal in Malay
- terusan
- canal in Indonesian
- kanal, terusan
- canal in Persian
- کانال kânâl, آبراه âb-râh, مادی mâdi
- canal in Thai
- คลอง klɔɔng, ลำน้ำ lamnáam
- canal in Vietnamese
- kênh, kênh đào
- canal in Myanmar
- မြောင်း mraung:, တူးမြောင်း tu:mraung:
Examples of canal in a sentence
- The mouth, oesophagus, stomach, and intestines are part of the human alimentary canal.
- Otic preparations are used to treat infections of the ear canal.
- In many vertebrates, the neurenteric canal connects the medullary tube and the primitive intestine.
Forms of canal
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | canals |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | canals |
| present participle | canalling |
| past participle | canalled |
| past | canalled |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Canals |
Origin of canal
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.
Words formed from canal
- 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
- hypoglossal 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
Phrases with canal
Words that rhyme with canal
Questions about canal
- What does canal mean?
- Canal means an artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
- What is canal in Hindi?
- Canal in Hindi is नहर (nahar), नाला (nālā). See Canal meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is canal?
- Canal can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce canal?
- Canal is pronounced /kəˈnæl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of canal?
- The plural of canal is canals.
Words near canal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: canal (page history and authors); Canal (page history and authors); canal (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); നീർച്ചാൽ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); canal (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); canal (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); canal (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); कुलो (Nepali) (page history and authors); مجرا (Pashto) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-canal.ogg.
Cite this entry: “canal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/canal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.