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canal

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An artificial waterway excavated for navigation, irrigation, or drainage; in Romantic and nature poetry, canals often figure as human interventions in the landscape, symbols of commerce, or quiet reflective corridors.

Detailed Definition
A canal is an artificial channel for water, often used for boats or irrigation. Here it helps place the memory in a specific landscape, but the word itself is common enough that it may not need glossing for many readers.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Pushing her dolls in a pram, by the old canal, I swore I’d keep her safe,” joins waterway and memory; “The canal carried barges under soot-dark bridges,” evokes industrial labor; Wordsworth’s “canal” landscapes can contrast engineered water with wild streams; “Beside the canal, cyclists pass the heron,” updates the setting as an urban ecological corridor
Additional Notes
The quoted line uses "canal," which is a somewhat specialized landscape term, though it is still fairly familiar.; Found in the poem, Our Father Who Art in Prison by Richard
Also Known As
waterway channel conduit aqueduct
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