How to say "canal" in Japanese

• 水路すいろCommon
  nounThe broadest and safest choice: any waterway or channel, including canals for irrigation, shipping or drainage. Use this when you simply mean 'canal' as a general watercourse and no specific name is involved.
  船ふねは水路すいろを下くだった。↗

  The ship sailed down the channel.
• 堀川ほりかわCommon
  nounRefers to a canal, but in practice it appears most often as the name of particular canals, such as canals in Kyoto and other castle towns. Best reserved for those named waterways rather than canals in general.
• 堀江ほりえCommon
  nounAlso means a canal, but like 堀川 it typically functions as a place or canal name, notably in Osaka. Treat it as a proper-name word; it is seldom the word you want for an ordinary canal in a sentence.
• 堀ほりJLPT N3approx.Common
  nounCovers a canal but also a ditch, so the sense is closer to a dug, often narrow channel or moat. For a large shipping canal it can sound off; reach for it when the waterway is a small excavated channel.

For a general man-made waterway use 水路; 堀川 and 堀江 are proper-name or local canal words; 堀 leans toward a ditch or moat-like channel, so it fits narrower dug watercourses.

Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only

• 水路すいろwaterway
• 堀川ほりかわcanal
• 堀江ほりえcanal
• カナルcanal
• 疎水そすいcanal
• 堀割ほりわりcanal
• 下水溝げすいこうdrainage ditch
• 溝渠こうきょditch
• 河渠かきょwaterway
• 運河うんが(navigable) canal
• 堀ほりcanal
• 管かんvessel