chimney

American  

[chim-nee] / ˈtʃɪm ni /

noun

• chimneys
  plural

1. a structure, usually vertical, containing a passage or flue by which the smoke, gases, etc., of a fire or furnace are carried off and by means of which a draft is created.

2. the part of such a structure that rises above a roof.

3. Now Rare. the smokestack or funnel of a locomotive, steamship, etc.

4. a tube, usually of glass, surrounding the flame of a lamp to promote combustion and keep the flame steady.

5. Geology.

   1. the vent of a volcano.

   2. a narrow vertical fissure between two rock faces or in a rock formation.

6. Mining. a nearly vertical cylindrical oreshoot.

7. British Dialect. fireplace.

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verb (used with object)

chimneyed, chimneying

1. Mountain Climbing. to ascend or descend (a chimney) by repeated bracing of one's feet or back and feet against opposite walls.

verb (used without object)

chimneyed, chimneying

1. Mountain Climbing. to ascend or descend a chimney.

chimney British  

/ ˈtʃɪmnɪ /

noun

1. a vertical structure of brick, masonry, or steel that carries smoke or steam away from a fire, engine, etc

2. another name for flue 1

3. short for chimney stack

4. an open-ended glass tube fitting around the flame of an oil or gas lamp in order to exclude draughts

5. a fireplace, esp an old and large one

6. geology

   1. a cylindrical body of an ore, which is usually oriented vertically

   2. the vent of a volcano

7. mountaineering a vertical fissure large enough for a person's body to enter

8. anything resembling a chimney in shape or function

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chimney Scientific  

/ chĭm′nē /

1. An elongated opening in a volcano through which magma reaches the Earth's surface.

2. A stack of minerals that have precipitated out of a hydrothermal vent on the floor of a sea or ocean.

3. See more at hydrothermal vent

4. An isolated column of rock along a coastline, formed by the erosion of a sea cliff by waves. Chimneys are smaller than stacks.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• chimneyless
  adjective
• chimneylike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• chimneys
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of chimney

1300–50; Middle English chimenai < Middle French cheminee < Latin ( camera ) camīnāta (room) having a fireplace, equivalent to camīn ( us ) (< Greek kámīnos furnace) + -āta -ate ¹

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Explanation

A chimney is the long, vertical, tunnel-like opening above a fireplace that provides a safe pathway for smoke — and the occasional Santa. It is also the name of the curvy glass flue in a hurricane lamp. Ever since the use of fire indoors, it has been important to build a chimney to allow the smoke to escape. The word chimney comes ultimately from the Greek kaminos, "furnace," and in 13th-century Old French it became the more familiar looking cheminee, "fire place." As chimney fires became a serious problem, the chimney sweep became an important person, cleaning the soot from chimneys. Oh, and dancing on the rooftops. (Or not.)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chimney chimneys chimneyed chimneying

That is a car payment, and it leaves through the chimney.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026

An AFP team saw a chimney spewing out black smoke at the site, which in places resembles a black lunar landscape, in March 2025.

From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026

In an interview with David Rosenberg of Rosenberg Research, Gundlach relayed the story of a 100-year-old silver maple at his house in Buffalo, N.Y., that lost a giant limb, nearly hitting the chimney.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

The house has a defective chimney, a historic beehive oven and even a hidden chamber decorated with hieroglyphs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026

No one had cleaned this chimney in a long time, Magdalys decided.

From "Dactyl Hill Squad" by Daniel José Older

"In addition to cracks and other damage, chimneys are falling, causing more serious damage," she wrote on X.

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

And they are hanging out everywhere: radio towers, power substations, chimneys, old barns.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026

It pointed out a school also sits about 700m from the incinerator's chimneys.

From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026

Homeowners would need to keep any branches one foot away from the walls, five feet above the roof and 10 feet from chimneys.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2026

Because of this the chimneys leaked so badly that half the smoke blew back into the room.

From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

He started at Bunnahabhain in 1978, when the 36 distillery workers all lived in the quaint, chimneyed houses clustered around the distillery.

From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2018

On Ghika's canvas, Paris' chimneyed rooftops, the jackstraw confusion of a Greek hillside town become strict, disciplined designs blocked in with arbitrary colors.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then came a fine square, chimneyed house with sherry-glass-shaped elm-trees about it.

From Aladdin O'Brien by Gouverneur Morris

But never before had Bobby found, above such a rustic brook, a many chimneyed and gabled house of stone, set in a walled garden and swathed in trees.

From Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson

Over against the west, a little to the north, the gray heavens were visible—a lightning seemed to run over them—a ghastly red lightning—sharply silhouetting the chimneyed housetops.

From The Nine-Tenths by James Oppenheim

For the next four hours, All wormed and squirmed his way toward the surface, wedging himself between the walls, chimneying diagonally toward the surface.

From The Guardian ● May 16, 2019

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Related Words

• fireplace
• flue
• furnace
• hearth
• pipe
• stack
• vent

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