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waterway

noun

Simple meaning

A conduit or watercourse, such as on the deck of a ship, to drain water.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

wawterway

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈwɔtɚweɪ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A conduit through which water flows

  2. A conduit or watercourse, such as on the deck of a ship, to drain water.

  3. A body of water, such as a river, channel or canal, that is navigable.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A conduit through which water flows

Used this way, waterway is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

inland waterwaygreat waterwayinternational waterwaywaterway systemdeep waterwaynew waterwayimportant waterwaywaterway transport

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • cross-florida waterwaynounCompound term

    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.

  • okeechobee waterwaynounCompound term

    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.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.