Canaux

Canaux is the plural form of canal in French and is used to refer to natural channels or artificial waterways. In English, can als typically denotes man-made waterways used for navigation or irrigation, while channels covers a broader range of watercourses, natural or artificial. The term also appears in technical contexts, such as biology, where a canal denotes a tubular passage inside an organism; in French, canaux would be used similarly.

Geography and engineering: Canals are waterways engineered to improve transport, water supply, or drainage. They usually consist of a defined channel that may include locks to change water level, aqueducts to cross obstacles, and feeder systems to maintain flow. They serve commercial shipping, agriculture, and urban water management, and are often integrated into larger river basins or port networks.

Notable examples: The Grand Canal in China is one of the world’s oldest and longest canal systems. The Erie Canal in the United States, completed in 1825, connected the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River. The Suez Canal in Egypt and the Panama Canal in Panama connect seas to shorten major intercontinental sea routes.

Other uses: In biology, a canal can denote tubular passages such as ion channels or ear canals. The French plural canaux would appear in French-language texts to refer to such structures. The term has specialized uses in civil engineering and natural sciences, but its general meaning remains a waterway or channel.