Definition of: canal

(kə·nal′) noun
1. An artificial inland waterway connecting two navigable bodies of water.
2. An artificial channel for irrigating tracts of land.
3. Any channel, groove, passage, or duct: the auditory canal.
4. Zool. A groove, as for the siphon in the shells of gastropods, or a pore, as in sponges, etc.
5. Astron. One of the peculiar markings visible on the face of the planet Mars.
—central canal The ventricle of the spinal cord.
—v.t. ca·nalled or ca·naled, ca·nal·ling or ca·nal·ing To build a canal or canals across or through; canalize. [<MF <L canalis groove. Doublet of CHANNEL.]