Word.ws English Dictionary

channel

Syllables: chan·nel/ˈt͡ʃænəl//ˈt͡ʃeə̯nəl/

channel noun: the hollow bed of running waters; (also) the bed of the sea or other body of water.

Noun (1)

channel (plural channels)

  1. The hollow bed of running waters; (also) the bed of the sea or other body of water.
    • The water coming out of the waterwheel created a standing wave in the channel.
  2. The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water.
    • A channel was dredged to allow ocean-going vessels to reach the city.
    • European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.2013 January, Nancy Langston, “The Fraught History of a Watery World”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 22 Jan 2013, page 59
  3. The navigable part of a river.
    • We were careful to keep our boat in the channel.
  4. A narrow body of water between two land masses.
    • The English Channel lies between France and England.
    • Our citizens and our businesses on both sides of the channel need more security and predictability for the future2018 May 14, Jon Stone in Brussels, The Independent
    Synonyms:
    passage
  5. Something through which another thing passes; a means of conveying or transmitting.
    • The news was conveyed to us by different channels.
    • But I write to tell you what you will hear through all the various channels by which news travels,...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 69–70
  6. An ion channel: pore-forming proteins located in a cell membrane that allow specific ions to pass through.
  7. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
    Synonyms:
    groove
  8. A structural member with a cross section shaped like a squared-off letter C.
    • The channel is not very efficient as a beam or column when used alone, but built-up members may be constructed of channels assembled together with other structural shapes and connected by rivets or welds.1960, “Structural Shapes”, in Construction Materials, Concrete Construction, and Engineer Computations, U.S. Government Printing Office
    Synonyms:
    C-channel
  9. A connection between initiating and terminating nodes of a circuit.
    • The guard-rail provided the channel between the downed wire and the tree.
  10. The narrow conducting portion of a MOSFET transistor.
  11. The part that connects a data source to a data sink.
    • A channel stretches between them.
  12. A path for conveying electrical or electromagnetic signals, usually distinguished from other parallel paths.
    • We are using one of the 24 channels.
Show 10 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A single path provided by a transmission medium via physical separation, such as by multipair cable.
    • The channel is created by bonding the signals from these four pairs.
  2. A single path provided by a transmission medium via spectral or protocol separation, such as by frequency or time-division multiplexing.
    • Their call is being carried on channel 6 of the T-1 line.
  3. A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies, usually in conjunction with a predetermined letter, number, or codeword, and allocated by international agreement.
    • KNDD is the channel at 107.7 MHz in Seattle.
  4. A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television.
    • NBC is on channel 11 in San Jose.
    • TV back then was five channels (three networks, PBS, and an independent station that ran I Love Lucy reruns), […]2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xi
    Synonyms:
    side
  5. (storage) The portion of a storage medium, such as a track or a band, that is accessible to a given reading or writing station or head.
    • This chip in this disk drive is the channel device.
  6. The part of a turbine pump where the pressure is built up.
    • The liquid is pressurized in the lateral channel.
  7. A distribution channel.
  8. (Internet) A particular area for conversations on an IRC or similar network, analogous to a chat room and often dedicated to a specific topic.
    • The excerpt in Figure 1 below shows a list of some channel names as they appear to an IRC user. The left hand column displays the channel name, the middle column displays how many people are currently on the channel, and the right hand column indicates the theme of the channel or the current topic...1996, Susan C. Herring, Computer-mediated Communication, page 50
  9. (Internet, historical) A means of delivering up-to-date Internet content via a push mechanism.
    • Netcaster is the "receiver" for channels that are built into Netscape 4.01 and later releases.1999, Jeffrey S Rule, Dynamic HTML: The HTML Developer's Guide
    • To access channels in Windows 98, you don't have to go any farther than your desktop.1999, Margaret Levine Young, Internet: The Complete Reference
  10. A psychic or medium who takes on the personality of a spirit and conveys messages from them.

Verb

channel (third-person singular simple present channels, present participle (US) channeling or (UK) channelling, simple past and past participle (US) channeled or (UK) channelled)

  1. (transitive) To make or cut a channel or groove in.
  2. (transitive) To direct or guide along a desired course.
    • We will channel the traffic to the left with these cones.
    • The resources channelled to those institutions which showed themselves most adept at formfilling, self-promotion and presentation were inadequate to sustain the quality they claimed.1997, Eric J Evans, Thatcher and Thatcherism
  3. (transitive) To serve as a medium for.
    • She was channeling the spirit of her late husband, Seth.
  4. (transitive) To follow as a model, especially in a performance.
    • He was trying to channel President Reagan, but the audience wasn't buying it.
    • When it is my turn to sing karaoke, I am going to channel Ray Charles.

Noun (2)

channel (plural channels)

  1. The wale of a sailing ship which projects beyond the gunwale and to which the shrouds attach via the chains. One of the flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Channel

the Channel

  1. (Europe, abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of English Channel: a strait in Europe, separating Great Britain from France and connecting the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Channel

Channel

  1. A former village and district of Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

channel meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

channel in Hindi

broadcasting: specific radio frequency or band of frequencies
चैनल cainal
natural or man-made deeper course through shallow body of water
कनाल kanāl, नहर nahar
narrow body of water between two land masses
नहर nahar
broadcasting: specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television
चैनल cainal

channel in Marathi

broadcasting: specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television
वाहिनी vāhinī, चॅनल cĕnal

channel in Urdu

broadcasting: specific radio frequency or band of frequencies
چَینَل cainal
broadcasting: specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television
چَینَل cainal

channel in Bengali

broadcasting: specific radio frequency or band of frequencies
চ্যানেল cênel
broadcasting: specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television
চ্যানেল cênel
More languagesFewer languages
channel in Malayalam
ചാനൽ cānal
channel in Kannada
ಚಾನೆಲ್, ಚಾನಲ್, ವಾಹಿನಿ
channel in Punjabi
ਚੈਨਲ
channel in Gujarati
ચેનલ, ચૅનલ
channel in Odia
ଚ୍ଯ଼ାନେଲ, ଚ୍ଯ଼ାନେଲ୍
channel in Nepali
च्यानल, च्यानलबारे
channel in Tagalog
alunan, dagat-lagusan
channel in Arabic
قَنَاة qanāh
channel in Malay
saluran, salurkan
channel in Thai
ช่อง chɔ̂ng, ช่องแคบ chɔ̂ng-kɛ̂ɛp
channel in Vietnamese
kênh
channel in Myanmar
ရေကြောင်း re-kraung:, မြစ်ကြော mrackrau:, ရေလက်ကြား relakkra:
Sindhi
کارِي khārī

Examples of channel in a sentence

  • At best, he is but a channel to convey to the National Assembly such matter as may import that body to know.1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to...
  • The excerpt in Figure 1 below shows a list of some channel names as they appear to an IRC user.1996, Susan C. Herring, Computer-mediated Communication, page 50:
  • But the real excitement is to be found in Erith and Thamesmead, where the Blairites in exile are channelling their hopes on Georgia Gould, 22, daughter of Mr Tony's famed pollmeister Philip.2009 March 4, Hugh Muir, “Diary”, in The Guardian:
  • So I handed out lyrics by Allan Sherman, the shticky 1960s parody writer who my father revered and channeled to the end.2007 June 17, Bob Morris, “Mirth, in Honor of Dad”, in The New York Times:

All 40 example sentences with channel

Synonyms of channel

All synonyms of channel

Forms of channel

Noun
pluralchannels
Verb
third-person singular presentchannels
present participle USchanneling
present participle UKchannelling
past participle USchanneled
past USchanneled
past participle UKchannelled
past UKchannelled

Past tense of channel: channeled or channelled

Plural of channel: channels

Origin of channel

From Middle English chanel (also as canel, cannel, kanel), a borrowing from Old French chanel, canel, from Latin canālis (“groove; canal; channel”). Doublet of canal.

From Middle English chanelen, from the noun (see above).

From chainwale.

Words formed from channel

Phrases with channel

43 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with channel

Questions about channel

What does channel mean?
Channel means the hollow bed of running waters; (also) the bed of the sea or other body of water.
What is channel in Hindi?
Channel in Hindi is चैनल (cainal), नहर (nahar), कनाल (kanāl). See Channel meaning in Hindi.
How do you use channel in a sentence?
At best, he is but a channel to convey to the National Assembly such matter as may import that body to know.
What part of speech is channel?
Channel can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce channel?
Channel is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃænəl/.
What is the plural of channel?
The plural of channel is channels.

Words near channel in the dictionary

  1. channa dahl
  2. channa dal
  3. channa dhal
  4. Channahon
  5. channas
  6. channel
  7. channel bass
  8. channel black
  9. channel blacks
  10. channel cat
  11. channel catfish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: channel (page history and authors); Channel (page history and authors); channel (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); channel (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); channel (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); channel (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); channel (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-us-channel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “channel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/channel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.