# channel

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈt͡ʃænəl/ · frequency rank #1,478

## Definitions
1. The hollow bed of running waters; (also) the bed of the sea or other body of water.
2. The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water.
3. The navigable part of a river.
4. A narrow body of water between two land masses.
5. Something through which another thing passes; a means of conveying or transmitting.
6. An ion channel: pore-forming proteins located in a cell membrane that allow specific ions to pass through.
7. A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
8. A structural member with a cross section shaped like a squared-off letter C.
9. A connection between initiating and terminating nodes of a circuit.
10. The narrow conducting portion of a MOSFET transistor.
11. The part that connects a data source to a data sink.
12. A path for conveying electrical or electromagnetic signals, usually distinguished from other parallel paths.
13. A single path provided by a transmission medium via physical separation, such as by multipair cable.
14. A single path provided by a transmission medium via spectral or protocol separation, such as by frequency or time-division multiplexing.
15. A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies, usually in conjunction with a predetermined letter, number, or codeword, and allocated by international agreement.
16. A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television.
17. The portion of a storage medium, such as a track or a band, that is accessible to a given reading or writing station or head.
18. The part of a turbine pump where the pressure is built up.
19. A distribution channel.
20. A particular area for conversations on an IRC or similar network, analogous to a chat room and often dedicated to a specific topic.
21. A means of delivering up-to-date Internet content via a push mechanism.
22. A psychic or medium who temporarily takes on the personality of somebody else.

## Etymology
From Middle English chanel (also as canel, cannel, kanel), a borrowing from Old French chanel, canel, from Latin canālis (“groove; canal; channel”). Doublet of canal.

## Easily confused with
- **chapel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/channel-vs-chapel)
- **Chantal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/channel-vs-chantal)
- **channels** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/channel-vs-channels)
- **channeled** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/channel-vs-channeled)
- **change** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/change-vs-channel)
- **chance** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-channel)
- **cancel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cancel-vs-channel)
- **canned** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/canned-vs-channel)
- **Cannes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cannes-vs-channel)
- **Chanel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chanel-vs-channel)
- **Chaney** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chaney-vs-channel)
- **changes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/changes-vs-channel)
- **changed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/changed-vs-channel)
- **chances** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chances-vs-channel)
- **changer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/changer-vs-channel)
- **chained** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chained-vs-channel)
- **chancel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chancel-vs-channel)

## Common misspellings (8)
`cahnnel`, `cchannel`, `chanenl`, `channell`, `channle`, `chhannel`, `chnanel`, `hcannel`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/channel