canal

CEFRB1

/kəˈnæl/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A human-made waterway for boats or carrying water.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A tubular channel within the body or within a plant.

Examples

  • A canal flowed between two rows of houses.

  • The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic with the Pacific.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
3

Also pronounced

  • /kəˈnal/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. One of the faint, hazy markings resembling straight lines on early telescopic images of the surface of Mars; see Martian canals

  2. An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To dig an artificial waterway in or to (a place), especially for drainage

More examples

In context

  • The canal is open to shipping.

  • In the mangrove-type salt marsh, the entire marsh must be canaled or impounded.

  • 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.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Boats move through locks to travel along the narrow blank connecting two seas.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of channel. See also cane and -al.