as in canal
an open man-made passageway for water
the Erie Canal was the first watercourse to connect the Hudson River with the Great Lakes
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Recent Examples of watercourse
The Marin Municipal Water District completed Kent Lake in 1954 by enlarging a section of Lagunitas Creek’s watercourse and damming the creek’s flow.
—
Jim Holden, The Mercury News, 3 Sep. 2024
The salmon were meant to be released in the Imnaha River, a 77-mile long watercourse in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
—Zoe Sottile, CNN, 7 Apr. 2024
Living in White Plains, N.Y., in the 1980s, Mrs. Wallace galvanized a broad campaign to rescue the river, at the time an inaccessible 23-mile watercourse that was home to more flotsam, like the carcasses of junked cars and rusted refrigerators, than fauna.
—Sam Roberts, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024
But those boundaries had never stopped moving before or since -- sometimes for good reason, such as facilitating the movements of nomads or access to a watercourse.
—Jérôme Tubiana, Foreign Affairs, 8 Oct. 2013
See All Example Sentences for watercourse
Jim Holden, The Mercury News, 3 Sep. 2024
The salmon were meant to be released in the Imnaha River, a 77-mile long watercourse in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
—Zoe Sottile, CNN, 7 Apr. 2024
Living in White Plains, N.Y., in the 1980s, Mrs. Wallace galvanized a broad campaign to rescue the river, at the time an inaccessible 23-mile watercourse that was home to more flotsam, like the carcasses of junked cars and rusted refrigerators, than fauna.
—Sam Roberts, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024
But those boundaries had never stopped moving before or since -- sometimes for good reason, such as facilitating the movements of nomads or access to a watercourse.
—Jérôme Tubiana, Foreign Affairs, 8 Oct. 2013
See All Example Sentences for watercourse
Recent Examples of Synonyms for watercourse
Noun
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Quatisha’s body was found in a canal days later by fishermen.—
Grethel Aguila,
Miami Herald,
7 Jan. 2026
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Pap smears, on the other hand, use a metal or plastic device called a speculum to widen the vaginal canal so a clinician can swab the cervix for cells.—
Aria Bendix,
NBC news,
5 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The tunnel would create a second route to transport water from new intakes on the Sacramento River to the south side of the Delta, where pumps send water into the aqueducts of the State Water Project.—
Ian James,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Jan. 2026
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After that flood, a hospital spokesperson said mitigation measures were put in place to protect the hospital against a 500-year flood and also noted the city made sewer and aqueduct improvements to reduce flood risk.—
Carol Thompson,
CBS News,
19 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Watercourse.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/watercourse. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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