cigarette

American  

[sig-uh-ret, sig-uh-ret] / ˌsɪg əˈrɛt, ˈsɪg əˌrɛt /

Or cigaret

noun

• cigarettes
  plural

1. a cylindrical roll of finely cut tobacco cured for smoking, considerably smaller than most cigars and usually wrapped in thin white paper.

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cigarette British  

/ ˌsɪɡəˈrɛt /

noun

1. Shortened forms: cig.   ciggy.  a short tightly rolled cylinder of tobacco, wrapped in thin paper and often having a filter tip, for smoking

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anticigarette
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cigarettes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cigarette

1820–30; < French, equivalent to cigare cigar + -ette -ette

Explanation

A small tube of paper that's filled with tobacco and lit with a match is a cigarette. Because cigarettes take a terrible toll on smokers' health, the number of people who smoke them has declined recently. Most cigarettes come in packages, each cigarette a perfect slim cylinder topped with a filter. When a cigarette is smoked all the way to this filter, it becomes a "butt." The main chemical in cigarettes is called nicotine, and it's extremely addictive — other additives in cigarettes can cause various cancers and lung diseases. Because of these dangers, cigarettes are regulated and highly taxed. The word itself comes from the French, meaning "little cigar."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cigarette cigarettes

Putting out his cigarette before starting the evening service, he sighed: "I think we'll be without water for at least another two months."

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

I said, “Why don’t you stick to the cigarette over your head, and I’ll handle this?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

When I asked what had brought her to the Trump Superstore, aside from the 50 percent discount, she lit a cigarette.

From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026

Researchers also found a pair of broken glasses; an IV needle with a bottle topper; a brass item with writing, perhaps a cigarette case; and a button with Japanese-looking iconography.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

He’d often smelled of the same sort of tobacco, aromatic, a little strong, but, unlike cigarette smoke, pleasant.

From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn

From being one of the city's big three employers - along with Boots and Players cigarettes - with 8,000 staff, it may have finished its days being little more than a logo.

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

However, it said it "understood why it was best to avoid images of models holding cigarettes" and would not use smoking content in future ads.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

The inspiring tale of a forgotten hero: In 1990, a single dad got fed up with the billboards for cigarettes targeting Chicago’s Black neighborhoods.

From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026

This has made it difficult to capture consumers who were switching from cigarettes to smokefree nicotine products and allowed illegal products to fill the void.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

Kat and Albert had simply to aim at the glowing ends of the cigarettes.

From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque

Related Words

• smoke