canal

«canal» in Mova's school dictionary: A long, narrow waterway dug by people so boats can travel… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a canal, canals)

meaning for a pupil

1) A long, narrow waterway dug by people so boats can travel or water can flow, for example across a country. tree →

2) A narrow tube in the body, such as the ear canal. tree →

sense in the lessons

In geography and history, canals carried goods by boat before railways; famous ones are the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. In the UK many towns have old canals with narrowboats and towpaths. In science «ear canal» is the tube into your ear. Safety: canal water is deep and cold with steep sides, so do not play near the edge. Phrases: «canal boat», «along the canal», «ear canal».

examples

• We walked along the canal towpath. tree →
• A long narrow boat went slowly down the canal. tree →
• The Panama Canal joins two oceans. tree →
• Canals were dug by hand long ago. tree →
• Never swim in a canal; the water is cold and deep. tree →
• Don't push cotton buds into your ear canal. tree →
• The canal had locks to lift boats up the hill. tree →
• Nothing was to be seen but an open meadow, surrounded by a few bushes, through which ran a broad canal or stream. tree →

note

Stress on the second part: «ca-NAL». A canal is made by people; a river is natural. Countable: canals.

In the corpora

• Been thrown into a canal—swam ashore!
• Alligators live in fresh water all over Florida, even in small ponds and canals.
• A canal is a waterway dug by people, a shortcut where nature left none.
• The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, is about 193 km long and joins the Mediterranean to the Red Sea without any locks.
• The land was dry, so farmers dug canals to bring river water to their fields.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «canal» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.