canal

See also: Canal and canàl

Contents

English

A canal.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French canal, from Old French canal, from Latin canālis (“channel; canal”), from canālis (“canal”), from canna (“reed, cane”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of channel.

Pronunciation

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /kəˈnæl/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /kəˈnɛl/
• Rhymes: -æl

Noun

canal (plural canals)

1. An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
2. (anatomy) A tubular channel within the body.
3. (astronomy) One of the faint, hazy markings resembling straight lines on early telescopic images of the surface of Mars.

Related terms

• channel
• channelization
• channelize
• canalization
• canalize

Translations

artificial waterway

• Albanian: kanal (sq) m
• Arabic: قَنَاة‎ f (qanāh)
• Armenian: ջրանցք (hy) (ǰrancʿkʿ)
• Assamese: খাল (khal), নলা (nola)
• Asturian: canal f
• Azerbaijani: arx (az), kanal (az)
• Belarusian: кана́л m (kanál)
• Bengali: খাল (khal)
• Breton: kanol (br)
• Bulgarian: кана́л (bg) m (kanál)
• Burmese: မြောင်း (my) (mraung:), တူးမြောင်း (my) (tu:mraung:)
• Catalan: canal (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 運河, 运河 (wan⁶ ho⁴)

  Mandarin: 運河 (zh), 运河 (zh) (yùnhé)

  Min Nan: 運河 (zh-min-nan), 运河 (ūn-hô)

• Czech: kanál (cs) m, průplav (cs) m
• Danish: kanal (da) c
• Dutch: kanaal (nl) n, vaart (nl) f, gracht (nl) f (in a city, more commonly used in Holland)
• Esperanto: kanalo
• Estonian: kanal
• Finnish: kanava (fi)
• French: canal (fr) m
• Galician: canal m, canle (gl) f
• Georgian: არხი (arxi)
• German: Kanal (de) m
• Greek: κανάλι (el) n (kanáli)

  Ancient Greek: διῶρυξ f (diôrux)

• Hebrew: תְּעָלָה‎ (he) f (te'ala)
• Hindi: नहर (hi) f (nahar)
• Hungarian: csatorna (hu)
• Icelandic: skurður (is) m
• Indonesian: kanal (id), terusan (id)
• Italian: canale (it) m
• Japanese: 運河 (ja) (うんが, unga), 水路 (ja) (すいろ, suiro)
• Kazakh: канал (kk) (kanal)
• Khmer: ប្រឡាយ (km) (prɑlaay)
• Korean: 운하 (ko) (unha)
• Kurdish: co (ku) m, cihok (ku) m, cobar (ku) m

  Central Kurdish: کەناڵ‎ (kenall), جۆگە‎ (coge)

• Kyrgyz: канал (ky) (kanal)
• Lao: ຄອງ (lo) (khǭng), ຕະຄອງ (ta khǭng), ລຳຄອງ (lam khǭng)

• Latin: fossa f
• Latvian: kanāls (lv) m
• Lithuanian: kanalas (lt) m
• Low German:

  Dutch Low Saxon: daip n (Gronings), knoal n (Gronings and Sallands), wetering f (Sallands)

• Macedonian: канал m (kanal)
• Malay: terusan
• Maltese: kanal m
• Maori: wai tawaka
• Mongolian: суваг (mn) (suvag)
• Norman: canal m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kanal (no) m

  Nynorsk: kanal m

• Pennsylvania German: Kanaal
• Persian: کانال‎ (fa) (kânâl), آب‌راه‎ (âb-râh)
• Polish: kanał (pl) m
• Portuguese: canal (pt) m
• Romanian: canal (ro) m
• Russian: кана́л (ru) m (kanál)
• Scottish Gaelic: canàl m, sruth-chlais f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: канал m

  Roman: kanal (sh) m

• Slovak: kanál m, prieplav
• Slovene: kanal m, prekop m
• Spanish: canal (es) m or f
• Swahili: mfereji (sw)
• Swedish: kanal (sv) c
• Tajik: канал (tg) (kanal)
• Telugu: కాలువ (te) (kāluva)
• Thai: คลอง (th) (klɔɔng), ลำน้ำ (lamnáam)
• Turkish: ark (tr), kanal (tr)
• Turkmen: kanal
• Ukrainian: кана́л (uk) m (kanál)
• Urdu: نہر‎ f (nahar)
• Uyghur: قانلا‎ (qanla)
• Uzbek: kanal (uz)
• Venetian: val (vec) f, vałe f
• Vietnamese: kênh (vi), kênh đào
• Welsh: camlas
• Yiddish: קאַנאַל‎ m (kanal), דורכגאָס‎ m (durkhgos)

a tubular channel within the body

• Bulgarian: канал (bg) m (kanal)
• Czech: kanálek m
• Dutch: kanaal (nl) n
• French: canal (fr) m
• Japanese: 管 (ja) (kan)

• Norman: canal m (Jersey)
• Polish: przewód (pl) m
• Romanian: canal (ro) n
• Slovak: kanálok m
• Spanish: canal (es) m or f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Afrikaans: ^{(please verify)} kanaal
• Galician: ^{(please verify)} canle (gl)
• Hindi: ^{(please verify)} नहर (hi) (nahar)
• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} skurður (is)
• Interlingua: canal
• Isthmus Zapotec: ^{(please verify)} biasa
• Kurdish: ^{(please verify)} cok (ku)

• Macedonian: ^{(please verify)} кана́л m (kanál)
• Samogitian: ^{(please verify)} kanals
• Swahili: ^{(please verify)} njia ya maji, ^{(please verify)} mfereji (sw)
• Tamil: ^{(please verify)} கால்வாய் (ta) (kālvāy)
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} కాలువ (te) (kāluva) (1, 2)
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} kanal (tr)

Verb

canal (third-person singular simple present canals, present participle canaling or canalling, simple past and past participle canaled or canalled)

1. To dig an artificial waterway in or to (a place), especially for drainage
   • 1968, Louisiana State University, Proceedings‎^[1], page 165:

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

2. To travel along a canal by boat
   • 1905, William Yoast Morgan, A Journey of a Jayhawker, page 211:

     Near Rotterdam we canalled by Delfthaven.

Anagrams

• Alcan, Clana, Nalca

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Asturian

Etymology

From Latin canālis.

Noun

canal f (plural canales)

1. canal (artificial waterway)

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Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin canālis (“channel; canal”).

Noun

canal m (plural canals)

1. canal; channel (artificial passage for water)

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin canālis. Doublet of chenal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.nal/

• audio (un canal)

  (file)

Noun

canal m (plural canaux)

1. canal
2. channel (broadcasting: specific radio frequency or band of frequencies)

Related terms

• chenal

See also

• chaîne

Further reading

• “canal” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• lança

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Galician

Etymology 1

From Old Galician and Old Portuguese canal (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria): cana (“cane, reed”) +‎ -al. Cognate with Spanish cañal.

Alternative forms

• canar

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈnal/

Noun

canal m (plural canais)

1. (dated) fish-weir; place or installation for fishing, on a river
   • 1375, A. López Ferreiro (ed.), Galicia Histórica. Colección diplomática. Santiago: Tipografía Galaica, page 385:

     V casares en Cesar os quaes fforon de Mayor Aras moller de Martin Sanchez Xarpa com huum paaço et con huum canal enno Tamare.

     5 farmhouses in Cesar, which belonged to Maior Aras, wife of Martín Sánchez Xarpa, with a manor and a fishery on the river Tambre

   Synonyms: caneiro, pesqueira

Etymology 2

Borrowing from Latin canalis. Doublet of canle and cal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈnal/

Noun

canal m (plural canais)

1. canal
2. channel

References

• “canal” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “canal” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “canar” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “canal” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “canal” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “canal” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

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Norman

Etymology

From Old French canal, from Latin canālis (“channel; canal”).

Noun

canal m (plural canaux)

1. (Jersey) canal

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Portuguese

canal

Etymology

From Old Portuguese canal, from Latin canālis (“canal”), from canna (“reed, cane”), from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). This form may possibly be an early borrowing or semi-learned term; cf. the fully inherited doublet cale, and related calha.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ka.ˈnaw/
• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐ.ˈnaɫ/

Noun

canal m (plural canais)

1. ditch
2. canal (artificial waterway)
3. (radio) channel (broadcasting: specific radio frequency or band of frequencies)
4. (television) television channel

Synonyms

• (ditch): canaleta, vala, valeta

Derived terms

• (canal): canal-do-Panamá

Related terms

• cale
• calha

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French canal, Latin canālis.

Noun

canal n (plural canale)

1. (plural canaluri) canal
2. channel

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Spanish

Etymology

From Old Spanish canal, from Latin canālis (“channel; canal”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈnal/
• Rhymes: -al

Noun

canal m (plural canales)

1. canal (waterway)
2. channel (of television)
3. (communication) channel
4. (chemistry) channel
5. cleavage

Derived terms

• acanalar
• Canal de Panamá
• canalizar
• canalón

Further reading

• “canal” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

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Venetian

Etymology

From Latin canālis.

Noun

canal m (plural canałi)

1. canal
2. channel (all senses)