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waterway

/ˈwɑtərweɪ/
/ˈwɔtəweɪ/
IPA guide

Other forms: waterways

Any place you can navigate by boat is a waterway, whether it's a river, a stream, or a canal. The city of Venice, Italy is famous for having waterways instead of paved streets — to get around there, you'll need to hire a gondola instead of a taxi.

Routes that boats routinely travel are waterways, and they're most likely to be referred to that way when those boats are transporting goods. Maritime waterways are made up of straits and canals connecting two large bodies of water (such as oceans), and inland waterways include long rivers like the Colorado and the Nile. The 3,000 mile-long Intracoastal Waterway is made up of bays, inlets, and sounds, hugging the Atlantic coast of the U.S. down to the Gulf of Mexico.

Definitions of waterway
  1. noun
    a navigable body of water
    see moresee less
    examples:
    Cross-Florida Waterway
    a waterway used by small boats to travel between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico through Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee_Canal and the Caloosahatchee River
    Inland Passage
    a naturally protected waterway from Seattle to Skagway in southeastern Alaska
    types:
    ditch
    any small natural waterway
    mare clausum
    (closed sea) a navigable body of water under the jurisdiction of a single nation
    mare liberum
    (free sea) a navigable body of water to which all nations have equal access
    rapid
    a part of a river where the current is very fast
    type of:
    body of water, water
    the part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean)
  2. noun
    a conduit through which water flows
    synonyms: watercourse
    see moresee less
    types:
    canal
    long and narrow strip of water made for boats or for irrigation
    flume
    watercourse that consists of an open artificial chute filled with water for power or for carrying logs
    headrace
    a waterway that feeds water to a mill or water wheel or turbine
    tailrace
    a watercourse that carries water away from a mill or water wheel or turbine
    cut
    a canal made by erosion or excavation
    industrial watercourse
    a canal that is operated by one or more industries
    race, raceway
    a canal for a current of water
    ship canal, shipway
    a canal large enough for seagoing vessels
    type of:
    way
    any artifact consisting of a road or path affording passage from one place to another
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