WATERWAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does waterway mean? 

• WATERWAY (noun)
  The noun WATERWAY has 2 senses:

1. a navigable body of water

2. a conduit through which water flows

  Familiarity information: WATERWAY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WATERWAY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A navigable body of water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("waterway" is a kind of...):

body of water; water (the part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "waterway"):

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)

Instance hyponyms:

Cross-Florida Waterway; Okeechobee 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; Inside Passage (a naturally protected waterway from Seattle to Skagway in southeastern Alaska)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A conduit through which water flows

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

watercourse; waterway

Hypernyms ("waterway" is a kind of...):

way (any artifact consisting of a road or path affording passage from one place to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "waterway"):

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)

 Context examples 

Down the frozen waterway toiled a string of wolfish dogs.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Climate change will increase forest cover and change species composition, resulting in a greater variety of leaves and plant litter falling into waterways.

(Climate change could double greenhouse gas emissions from freshwater ecosystems, University of Cambridge)

The deep peace of this strange waterway was unbroken by any sign of man.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Oceans and other waterways are rich in algae –- energy factories that convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into chemical energy and help remove carbon from the atmosphere.

(Scientists discover key factors in how some algae harness solar energy, National Science Foundation)

There may have been certain environmental features, such as deserts, large waterways and/or mountain ranges, that would have limited the movement of animals and promoted the evolution of regionally distinct faunas.

(Paleontologists discover new species of titanosaurian dinosaur in Tanzania, NSF)

Regarding our plans, we finally decided that Mina's guess was correct, and that if any waterway was chosen for the Count's escape back to his Castle, the Sereth and then the Bistritza at its junction, would be the one.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Released from deeper soil horizons and leached by rain into waterways, the older, chemically unstable organic carbon is eventually consumed by stream-dwelling microbes, which devour the rich compounds and respire carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

(Tropical soil disturbance could be hidden source of carbon dioxide, National Science Foundation)

At the fall of darkness they swung the dogs into a cluster of spruce trees on the edge of the waterway and made a camp.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway.

(White Fang, by Jack London)