ca·nal (kə-năl')
n.

1. An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
2. Anatomy. A tube, duct, or passageway.
3. Astronomy. One of the faint, hazy markings resembling straight lines on early telescopic images of the surface of Mars.

tr.v., -nalled, or -naled, -nal·ling, or -nal·ing, -nals, or -nals.

1. To dig an artificial waterway through: canal an isthmus.
2. To provide with an artificial waterway or waterways.

[Partly French, channel, and partly Middle English, tube (from Medieval Latin canāle), both from Latin canālis, tube, channel, probably from canna, small reed. See cane.]

---

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

---