English Online Dictionary. What means channel? What does channel mean?
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈt͡ʃænəl/
- Hyphenation: chan‧nel
- Rhymes: -ænəl
Etymology 1
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.
Noun
channel (plural channels)
- The physical confine of a river or slough, consisting of a bed and banks.
- The natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar, bay, or any shallow body of water.
- The navigable part of a river.
- A narrow body of water between two land masses.
- Something through which another thing passes; a means of conveying or transmitting.
- (biochemistry) An ion channel: pore-forming proteins located in a cell membrane that allow specific ions to pass through.
- A gutter; a groove, as in a fluted column.
- (construction, mechanical engineering) A structural member with a cross section shaped like a squared-off letter C.
- (electronics) A connection between initiating and terminating nodes of a circuit.
- (electronics) The narrow conducting portion of a MOSFET transistor.
- (communication) The part that connects a data source to a data sink.
- (communication) A path for conveying electrical or electromagnetic signals, usually distinguished from other parallel paths.
- (communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via physical separation, such as by multipair cable.
- (communication) A single path provided by a transmission medium via spectral or protocol separation, such as by frequency or time-division multiplexing.
- (broadcasting) A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies, usually in conjunction with a predetermined letter, number, or codeword, and allocated by international agreement.
- (broadcasting) A specific radio frequency or band of frequencies used for transmitting television.
- NBC is on channel 11 in San Jose.
- 2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xi
- TV back then was five channels (three networks, PBS, and an independent station that ran I Love Lucy reruns), […]
- (storage) 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.
- The part of a turbine pump where the pressure is built up.
- (business, marketing) A distribution channel.
- (Internet) A particular area for conversations on an IRC or similar network, analogous to a chat room and often dedicated to a specific topic.
- (Internet, historical) A means of delivering up-to-date Internet content via a push mechanism.
- A psychic or medium who temporarily takes on the personality of somebody else.
Synonyms
- (narrow body of water between two land masses) passage, sound, strait
- (for television) side (dated British, from when there were only two channels), station (US)
- (groove, as in a fluted column) groove, gutter
- (structural member) C-channel
Derived terms
Related terms
- canal
Descendants
- → Japanese: チャンネル (channeru)
- → Korean: 채널 (chaeneol)
- → Welsh: sianel
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle English chanelen, from the noun (see above).
Verb
channel (third-person singular simple present channels, present participle channeling or channelling, simple past and past participle channelled or channeled)
- (transitive) To make or cut a channel or groove in.
- (transitive) To direct or guide along a desired course.
- (transitive, of a spirit, as of a dead person) To serve as a medium for.
- (transitive) To follow as a model, especially in a performance.
Derived terms
- backchannel
Translations
Etymology 3
From a corruption of chainwale.
Noun
channel (plural channels)
- (nautical) The wale of a sailing ship which projects beyond the gunwale and to which the shrouds attach via the chains. One of the flat ledges of heavy plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel, to increase the spread of the shrouds and carry them clear of the bulwarks.
References
- “channel”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.