smoky
Americanadjective
-
emitting, containing, or resembling smoke
-
emitting smoke excessively or in the wrong place
a smoky fireplace
-
of or tinged with the colour smoke
a smoky cat
-
having the flavour of having been cured by smoking
-
made dark, dirty, or hazy by smoke
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of smoky
A Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325; see origin at smoke, -y 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In the weeks afterward, people returned to offices overlooking the smoky ruins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
At least, "we can detect the precursor of the smoky flavour beforehand".
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
On a hot and smoky mid-July Saturday night at the Detroit Opera House, the front-running campaign in Michigan’s Senate Democratic primary had little to say about the Republican Party.
From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2026
"By Sunday evening everything had really begun to empty out," a holidaymaker from Essex told the BBC, adding that the air was "really smoky" with bits of ash.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
She looked out at the clouds outside her window, smoky thickets drifting by, and thought how fragile they were.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The sky outside seemed even smokier than before.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2025
The air got smokier as we flew over the ice fields.
From Slate ● Aug. 9, 2024
The darker, the peatier, the smokier, the better.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2023
Q: With hotter, smokier summers becoming the norm, we’re looking to improve our home’s temperature and air quality.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 24, 2022
It had grown darker and smokier while they’d waited out the storm.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Aged Cheddar is that cheese, sharp enough to stand up to the smokiest of smoked meats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
More firefighting resources were not necessarily deployed to the smokiest fires, either.
From New York Times ● Jun. 28, 2023
“Today it’s actually the smokiest that we’ve seen,” Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite fire information spokesperson, said Sunday.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 10, 2022
For the smokiest, most charred flavor, grill thick planks of eggplant and then combine them with garlic, scallions, vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, and sesame oil.
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2022
The mere name Blackfriars now conjures up a vision of the smokiest and dirtiest parts of smoky, dirty, dearly-beloved London.
From The Children of Westminster Abbey Studies in English History by Rose Georgina Kingsley
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
