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canal

[kuh-nal]

Origin

noun

an artificial waterway for navigation, irrigation, etc.

a long narrow arm of the sea penetrating far inland.

a tubular passage or cavity for food, air, etc., especially in an animal or plant; a duct.

channel; watercourse.

Astronomy. one of the long, narrow, dark lines on the surface of the planet Mars, as seen telescopically from the earth.

verb (used with object)

to make a canal through.

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Canal is always a great word to know.

So is satellite. Does it mean:

a natural body that revolves around a planet such as a moon

the boundary around a black hole on and within which no matter or radiation can escape

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Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English: waterpipe, tubular passage < Latin canālis, perhaps equivalent to can(na) reed, pipe (see cane) + -ālis -al¹; def. 5 a mistranslation of Italian canali channels, term used by G. V. Schiaparelli

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Canal

Collins

World English Dictionary

canal (kəˈnæl)

—n
1.	an artificial waterway constructed for navigation, irrigation, water power, etc
2.	any of various tubular passages or ducts: the alimentary canal
3.	any of various elongated intercellular spaces in plants
4.	astronomy any of the indistinct surface features of Mars originally thought to be a network of channels but not seen on close-range photographs. They are caused by an optical illusion in which faint geological features appear to have a geometric structure

—vb , -nals, -nalling, -nalled, -nals, -naling, -naled
5.	to dig a canal through
6.	to provide with a canal or canals

[C15 (in the sense: pipe, tube): from Latin canālis channel, water pipe, from canna reed, cane¹]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

canal

early 15c., from Fr. canal (12c.), noun use of an adj., from L. canalis "water pipe, groove, channel," from canna "reed." Originally "a pipe for liquid," its sense transfered by 1670s to "artificial waterway."

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

canal ca·nal (kə-nāl')
n.
A duct, a channel, or a tubular structure.

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