DictionaryAI

canyon

USKAN-yuhn/ˈkænjən/

Pluralcanyons

2 meanings of canyon

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable
    A valley cut into rock by a river, especially a long, narrow one with steep sides.

    Over thousands of years the river carved a canyon nearly a mile deep.

    The trail follows the canyon floor for six miles before climbing to the rim.

    Similargorge, ravine, valley, gulch

    Note

    Spanish cañón gave English the word, which makes it a doublet of cannon: one source, two roads into English, one ending at a gun and the other at a gorge. In use it stretches well past river-cut rock. Trains Illustrate in 1961 finds a miniature canyon hollowed out by the Greta, and John Branch's Snow Fall (2012) sends a woman tumbling through a cluttered canyon.

Less common meaning

  1. 2
    verb
    Of water, another liquid, or some other substance, to flow in or into a canyon.

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Origin

Borrowed from Spanish cañón. It is a doublet of cannon.