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

Take for instance the San Bernardino Santa Fe smokestack, a towering 189-foot-tall structure from the 1920s that fueled the nearby railway power plant until 1994.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

“They’re going to look like an Amazon distribution warehouse; there’s no smokestack and massive tailings pond next to it.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026

They're worried about PFAs plumes in their ground, poisoning their water, or whether or not their air is poisoned by sulfur dioxide from a smokestack next to them.

From Salon • May 2, 2025

The rule is intended to restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 21, 2024

If this had been in a book, she thought, the skies would be weeping, the swallows mourning by the smokestack.

From "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen

Related Words

• industrialized
• mechanical
• modern
• technical