Channel: Water, Television, and the Route Anything Travels
A channel is a passage along which something flows — water, a broadcast signal, a message or a product. The verb means to direct something along such a route.
A channel is a route with sides. Water gave the word its shape, and everything else borrowed it: television channels, distribution channels, channels of communication and, in the verb, channelling energy into something useful.
- A stretch of water between land masses. *The English Channel.*
- A groove or watercourse. *An irrigation channel.*
- A broadcast frequency or station. *Switch to the other channel.*
- A route for messages or goods. *Through official channels.*
- To direct along a route (verb). *Channel the funds into training.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | channel | A news channel. |
| Verb | channel | Channel your energy. |
| Past (UK) | channelled | Funds were channelled abroad. |
| Past (US) | channeled | Funds were channeled abroad. |
| Related | canal | A shipping canal. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Complaints must go through the proper channels.The official route, and often a euphemism for delay.
- She channelled her frustration into training.Directed a strong feeling somewhere useful.
- He is channelling his grandfather in that suit.Informal — imitating or evoking someone.
Channel, canal and strait
- Channel — a natural passage of water, or a broad sea passage
- Canal — dug by people, for boats or for irrigation
- Strait — a narrow sea passage connecting two larger bodies
- Sound — a wide inlet or a passage between an island and the mainland
From Old French *chanel*, from Latin *canalis*, a pipe or groove — the same word that gives English canal. The two are doublets: one word that entered English twice by different routes and settled into different jobs.
Channelled or channeled?
Two Ls in British English, one in American. The same split applies to travelled, cancelled and modelled.
Why is a TV station called a channel?
From the allocated band of frequencies — a channel of the radio spectrum along which the signal travels.