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say it: CHAN-uhl
channel is a noun and verb meaning "a path over which electrical signals can pass". It carries 11 recorded senses.
a path over which electrical signals can pass
“a channel is typically what you rent from a telephone company”
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”
river
(often plural) a means of communication or access
“it must go through official channels”
“lines of communication were set up between the two firms”
plural
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”
a television station and its programs
“a satellite TV channel”
“surfing through the channels”
“they offer more than one hundred channels”
a way of selling a company's product either directly or via distributors
“possible distribution channels are wholesalers or small retailers or retail chains or direct mailers or your own stores”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for channel come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.