smokestack

American  

[smohk-stak] / ˈsmoʊkˌstæk /

noun

1. Also called stack.  a pipe for the escape of the smoke or gases of combustion, as on a steamboat, locomotive, or building.

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adjective

1. pertaining to, engaged in, or dependent on a basic heavy industry, as steel or automaking.

   smokestack companies.

smokestack British  

/ ˈsməʊkˌstæk /

noun

1. Sometimes shortened to: stack.  a tall chimney that conveys smoke into the air

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Etymology

Origin of smokestack

First recorded in 1855–60; smoke + stack

Explanation

The chimney on top of a factory or a ship can be called a smokestack. If you look at Google Images for the word "pollution," you'll see lots of pictures of smokestacks spewing thick, gray smoke. The main difference between the words chimney and smokestack is that you're more likely to call the flue on top of your house a chimney, saving smokestack for more industrial uses. Steam locomotives used smokestacks to release smoke and steam — the exhaust from the train's smokebox. Without the smokestack, the pressure would become dangerously high inside the train, causing it to explode.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

smokestack

The smokestack emissions are comparable with those from burning coal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Five people were also confirmed killed and four others were unaccounted for at the Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro city, where part of a red-and-white smokestack collapsed, a government official told AFP on Wednesday.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

Whatever “industrials” means in the modern sense, “it isn’t smokestack industries,” said Interactive Brokers Chief Strategist Steves Sosnick.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026

For decades, these newly immigrated workers would be segregated into the neighborhoods surrounding the smokestack, he added, leading to the growth of a large multigenerational Mexican community.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2025

It’s shiny silver and resembles an RV—has a door and wide windows on the sides—but it also has a smokestack and big wheels with pistons like a locomotive.

From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas

Related Words

• industrialized
• mechanical
• modern
• technical