Meaning & use
canalization
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Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
The building of canals or the straightening and deepening of natural waterways so water flows along a fixed course.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: the canalization of the river.
Patterns
- the canalization of something
The canalization of the river made the town safer from floods.
Early canalization of the valley opened a route for barges.
Critics said canalization had destroyed the wetlands.
noununcountablefigurative
The directing of energy, feelings or behavior into one fixed outlet or pattern.
Grammar: Used in psychology and social science: the canalization of anger.
Patterns
- the canalization of something into something
The canalization of her anger into running helped her recover.
The study examined the canalization of political energy into one party.
Some theories view habits as the canalization of early desires.
noununcountablebiologyspecialist
In biology, the tendency of a developing organism to follow a stable path even when conditions or genes vary.
Grammar: A specialist term in developmental biology.
Patterns
- canalization of development
Canalization explains why most flies develop the same body plan despite small gene changes.
The textbook introduced canalization as a form of robustness in growth.
Researchers measured canalization by comparing traits across many embryos.
Common combinations
- canalization of a river
- The canalization of the river took ten years.
- canalization of energy
- Sport can be a healthy canalization of energy.
- canalization of anger
- The therapist talked about the canalization of anger into creative work.
- river canalization
- River canalization changed fish habitats along the banks.
- developmental canalization
- Developmental canalization keeps traits stable across generations.
Synonyms and how they differ
- channeling
- Channeling is the more common everyday word for directing something into a path, and canalization is more technical.
- redirection
- Redirection only means turning something in a new direction, without the idea of a fixed channel.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: canalization or channelization?
canalization vs channelization
Channelization is the usual American term for straightening and lining rivers, and it overlaps with canalization in engineering, but it is not used for biology or feelings.
Practice
Which sentence uses canalization in its figurative, non-engineering sense?
Choose one answer.
Directing grief into charity work is a figurative use. The other options refer to the physical waterway.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “canalization”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.