canal

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canal^¹

/kəˈnæl/ Australia, Canada, US
/kəˈnal/ British, Northern England, Scotland
/kəˈnɛl/ New Zealand
/kəˈnɛl/ Canada, also
/kəˈnɔːl/ nonstandard, obsolete

Rhymes with -æl

Where it comes from

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.

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

verb canals · canalling · 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.
To travel along a canal by boat Near Rotterdam we canalled by Delfthaven.

Canal^²

proper noun Canals

A surname.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: canalize, channel, duct, waterway, channelization, chute, watercourse, conduit, pipeline, navigable, geo, fosse, causeway, flume, tunnelling, groove

Translations

Every language

noun artificial waterway

Español	canal, caz, cauz
한국어	운하 unha
日本語	運河 unga, 水路 suiro
中文	運河 /运河 yùnhé
हिन्दी	नहर nahar, नाला nālā
Kiswahili	mfereji
Português	canal
Français	canal
Deutsch	Kanal
Italiano	canale
Ελληνικά	κανάλι kanáli
Română	canal
Русский	кана́л kanál
Tiếng Việt	kênh, kênh đào
العربية	قَنَاة qanāh
עברית	תְּעָלָה te'ala, יְאוֹר ye'ór

noun a tubular channel within the body

Español	canal
日本語	管 kan
Français	canal
Deutsch	Kanal, Gang
Română	canal

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MLA

"canal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/canal. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

APA

canal. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/canal

Chicago

"canal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 5, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/canal.

BibTeX

@misc{canal_2026,
  title = {canal},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/canal},
  urldate = {2026-11-05}
}