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Glite Dictionary
🚢 A ship canal 🛠️ A launch ramp
shipway

shipway

8.3
A canal wide and deep enough for ships to pass through
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : canal de navegación
  • Dredging the shipway ensured that deep-draft vessels could access the port.

Examples

  • Engineers designed the shipway to accommodate even the largest freighters.

  • The new shipway greatly improved transportation between the river and the sea.

  • The shipway is open.

  • Look at that shipway!

  • The construction of the shipway allowed larger cargo ships to enter the harbor safely.

  • After extensive renovations, the shipway can now support the passage of various types of vessels.

  • Boaters are grateful for the newly maintained shipway that connects the inland waterways to the ocean.

Synonyms

waterway
vsshipway
37 2.3

A river, canal, or channel that boats use to travel

is limited to a passage large enough for seagoing vessels
ship canal
vsshipway
3.7

A canal wide and deep enough for large ships to pass through

is the same meaning but uses slightly different wording

Surface Forms

shipway singular
shipways plural

Morphology

shipway = ship + way (semi-transparent) = ship + way

The parts 'ship' and 'way' are clear, but the term is a specialized technical use for a canal rather than an everyday, fully predictable compound.

Etymology

Shipway combines ship 'boat' and way 'path' or 'route'. So a shipway is literally a 'path for ships', which is why it can mean a canal wide enough for ships that go to sea.