tailpipe

American  

[teyl-pahyp] / ˈteɪlˌpaɪp /

Or tail pipe

noun

1. an exhaust pipe located at the rear of a motor vehicle or aircraft powered by an internal-combustion engine.

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tailpipe British  

/ ˈteɪlˌpaɪp /

noun

1. a pipe from which the exhaust gases from an internal-combustion engine are discharged, esp the terminal pipe of the exhaust system of a motor vehicle

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Etymology

Origin of tailpipe

1880–85, in sense, “suction pipe of a pump”; 1905–10 for current sense; tail ¹ + pipe ¹

Example Sentences

SAF still produces tailpipe emissions when it is burned to power planes.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 23, 2026

There are no tailpipe emissions, and electric lorries also draw their power increasingly from renewable sources of energy.

From BBC • Sep. 3, 2025

It is the heaviest mass-market car in the world, and, being all electric, it did not have a single molecule of carbon dioxide flaring from the tailpipe.

From Slate • Jun. 22, 2025

Because of its historically poor air quality, California has been an innovator in clean car policy, enacting the nation’s first tailpipe emissions standards in 1966.

From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2025

Walking up the driveway to the house, stepping over potholes full of rainwater, Joe noticed his father’s Franklin, its engine running, plumes of white exhaust billowing from the tailpipe.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown