CHANNEL

channel

(noun) a passage for water (or other fluids) to flow through; “the fields were crossed with irrigation channels”; “gutters carried off the rainwater into a series of channels under the street”

channel, television channel, TV channel

(noun) a television station and its programs; “a satellite TV channel”; “surfing through the channels”; “they offer more than one hundred channels”

duct, epithelial duct, canal, channel

(noun) a bodily passage or tube lined with epithelial cells and conveying a secretion or other substance; “the tear duct was obstructed”; “the alimentary canal”; “poison is released through a channel in the snake’s fangs”

channel, transmission channel

(noun) a path over which electrical signals can pass; “a channel is typically what you rent from a telephone company”

channel, communication channel, line

(noun) (often plural) a means of communication or access; “it must go through official channels”; “lines of communication were set up between the two firms”

channel

(noun) a deep and relatively narrow body of water (as in a river or a harbor or a strait linking two larger bodies) that allows the best passage for vessels; “the ship went aground in the channel”

groove, channel

(noun) a long narrow furrow cut either by a natural process (such as erosion) or by a tool (as e.g. a groove in a phonograph record)

transmit, transfer, transport, channel, channelize, channelise

(verb) send from one person or place to another; “transmit a message”

channel

(verb) direct the flow of; “channel information towards a broad audience”

impart, conduct, transmit, convey, carry, channel

(verb) transmit or serve as the medium for transmission; “Sound carries well over water”; “The airwaves carry the sound”; “Many metals conduct heat”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Proper noun

the Channel

(by ellipsis) the English Channel

Etymology 1

Noun

channel (plural channels)

The physical confine of a river or slough, consisting of a bed and banks.

The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water.

The navigable part of a river.

A narrow body of water between two land masses.

Something through which another thing passes; a means of conveying or transmitting.

A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.

(electronics) A connection between initiating and terminating nodes of a circuit.

(electronics) The narrow conducting portion of a MOSFET transistor.

(communication) The part that connects a data source to a data sink.

(communication) A path for conveying electrical or electromagnetic signals, usually distinguished from other parallel paths.

(communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via physical separation, such as by multipair cable.

(communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via spectral or protocol separation, such as by frequency or time-division multiplexing.

(broadcasting) A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies, usually in conjunction with a predetermined letter, number, or codeword, and allocated by international agreement.

(broadcasting) A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television.

(storage) The portion of a storage medium, such as a track or a band, that is accessible to a given reading or writing station or head.

(technic) The way in a turbine pump where the pressure is built up.

(business, marketing) A distribution channel

(Internet) A particular area for conversations on an IRC network, analogous to a chat room and often dedicated to a specific topic.

(Internet) An obsolete means of delivering up-to-date Internet content.

A psychic or medium who temporarily takes on the personality of somebody else.

Synonyms

• (narrow body of water between two land masses) passage, sound, strait

• (for television) side (dated British, from when there were only two channels), station (US)

• (groove, as in a fluted column) groove, gutter

Etymology 2

Verb

channel (third-person singular simple present channels, present participle channelling or channeling, simple past and past participle channeled or channelled)

(transitive) To make or cut a channel or groove in.

(transitive) To direct or guide along a desired course.

(transitive, of a spirit, as of a dead person) To serve as a medium for.

(transitive) To follow as a model, especially in a performance.

Etymology 3

Noun

channel (plural channels)

(nautical) The wale of a sailing ship which projects beyond the gunwale and to which the shrouds attach via the chains. One of the flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks.

Source: Wiktionary


Chan"nel, n. Etym: [OE. chanel, canel, OF. chanel, F. chenel, fr. L. canalis. See Canal.]

1. The hollow bed where a stream of water runs or may run.

2. The deeper part of a river, harbor, strait, etc., where the main current flows, or which affords the best and safest passage for vessels.

3. (Geog.)

Definition: A strait, or narrow sea, between two portions of lands; as, the British Channel.

4. That through which anything passes; means of passing, conveying, or transmitting; as, the news was conveyed to us by different channels. The veins are converging channels. Dalton. At best, he is but a channel to convey to the National assembly such matter as may import that body to know. Burke.

5. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.

6. pl. Etym: [Cf. Chain wales.] (Naut.)

Definition: Flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks. Channel bar, Channel iron (Arch.), an iron bar or beam having a section resembling a flat gutter or channel.

– Channel bill (Zoöl.), a very large Australian cucko (Scythrops Novæhollandiæ.

– Channel goose. (Zoöl.) See Gannet.

Chan"nel, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Channeled, or Channelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Channeling, or Channelling.]

1. To form a channel in; to cut or wear a channel or channels in; to groove. No more shall trenching war channel her fields. Shak.

2. To course through or over, as in a channel. Cowper.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

2 April 2025

COVERT

(adjective) secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed; “covert actions by the CIA”; “covert funding for the rebels”


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Coffee Trivia

Espresso is both a coffee beverage and a brewing method that originated in Italy. When making an espresso, a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure forces through finely-ground coffee beans. It has more caffeine per unit volume than most coffee beverages. Its smaller serving size will take three shots to equal a mug of standard brewed coffee.

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