tobacco
Americannoun
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any of several plants belonging to the genus Nicotiana, of the nightshade family, especially one of those species, as N. tabacum, whose leaves are prepared for smoking or chewing or as snuff.
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the prepared leaves, as used in cigarettes, cigars, and pipes.
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any product or products made from such leaves.
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any of various similar plants of other genera.
noun
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any of numerous solanaceous plants of the genus Nicotiana, having mildly narcotic properties, tapering hairy leaves, and tubular or funnel-shaped fragrant flowers. The species N. tabacum is cultivated as the chief source of commercial tobacco
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the leaves of certain of these plants dried and prepared for snuff, chewing, or smoking
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of tobacco
1525–35; < Spanish tabaco, perhaps < Arawak: a pipe for smoking the plant, or roll of leaves smoked, or the plant
Explanation
Tobacco refers to the leaves of the tobacco plant that have been dried and processed for people to roll up and smoke. Tobacco is the main ingredient in cigarettes, and of course, chewing tobacco. Tobacco was used for fun in the Americas way before the Europeans came, but it was cultivated in France in the 1500s, and is still going strong. The word tobacco probably came from the Caribbean. The name Tobacco Road is from a novel by Erskine Caldwell, but is used to describe a section of North Carolina that produced a lot of tobacco. Tobacco is mainly used in cigarettes, which are really bad for your health.
Vocabulary lists containing tobacco
Central America and the Caribbean - Introductory
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Central America and the Caribbean - Middle School and High School
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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:
Up to 45 percent of dementia risk could be prevented or delayed, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, citing modifiable risk factors such as tobacco and air pollution.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
Bank, Capital One, PNC, TD Bank and BMO—between 2020 and 2023: oil and gas, coal, firearms, private prisons, payday and payroll lending, tobacco, adult entertainment, political-action committees, and digital assets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Most had never smoked and were diagnosed with a form of lung cancer that differs biologically from the type typically caused by tobacco use.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 13, 2026
Children aged 17 or younger now face a lifelong ban on buying cigarettes, since it will be illegal for shops to sell tobacco to anyone born after 1 January 2009.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Kainta sprinkles a bit of tobacco on the river, closes his eyes, and lifts his hands, and I know he is praying.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
For hobbies he collects pipes, strangely blended tobaccoes, old clocks.
From Time Magazine Archive
Latakia, Shiraz, Manila, Cuba, Virginia, and Maryland produce the most valuable tobaccoes.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 34, August, 1860 by Various
I have given orders to the Farmers-General to treat in preference, and at a reasonable price, for the purchase of the tobaccoes of North America.
From The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. XI by Sparks, Jared
The sentries, outposts and vedettes forbear musketry; on the contrary, exchange tobaccoes sometimes, and have a snatch of conversation.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 20 by Carlyle, Thomas
Nevertheless, there was one black week when we all smoked the ordinary tobaccoes.
From My Lady Nicotine A Study in Smoke by Prendergast, Maurice Brazil
The shift from traditional smoking of indigenous tobaccos and other plants to commercial tobaccos has had “significant deleterious effects on tribal culture and health,” the study said.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 3, 2018
“It’s something we’ve been planning for,” said David Sylvia, a spokesman for Altria Group, the parent company of John Middleton, which manufactures the popular Black & Mild cigar brand and a variety of pipe tobaccos.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2013
The publication of a fake testimonial is no greater perversion of the truth than to imply that the heat treatment of tobaccos is an exclusive process with any single manufacturer.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Moscow, state-owned tobacco stores recently offered Muscovites unaccustomed to blended tobaccos West German cigarettes at 33� to 38� a pack.
From Time Magazine Archive
They eagerly traded harsh burley tobaccos then popular for the mild and sweet-tasting bright tobacco they found in Durham.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
Definitions 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.
