tobacco
Americannoun
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tobaccos,
plural
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tobaccoes
plural
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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:
Lifestyle factors — such as diet, sleep, regular exercise, managing blood pressure and blood sugar, avoiding tobacco and alcohol — can reduce the risk of dementia by up to 45%, Tan said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
After identifying a promising collection of genes from wolfsbane and larkspur, the researchers transferred those genetic instructions into tobacco plants.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
That is how the tobacco settlement moved roughly a quarter-trillion dollars, of which the lawyers kept north of $13 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
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
He stayed there briefly, sleeping on the floor outside Madison’s room, before returning to Montpelier to spend the rest of his life in the tobacco fields.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
For hobbies he collects pipes, strangely blended tobaccoes, old clocks.
From Time Magazine Archive
Nevertheless, there was one black week when we all smoked the ordinary tobaccoes.
From My Lady Nicotine A Study in Smoke by Maurice Brazil Prendergast
Latakia, Shiraz, Manila, Cuba, Virginia, and Maryland produce the most valuable tobaccoes.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 34, August, 1860 by Various
It is not even a good mixture, for I used to try it occasionally; and if there is one man in London who knows tobaccoes it is myself.
From My Lady Nicotine A Study in Smoke by Maurice Brazil Prendergast
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 Jared Sparks
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
Their current in months' inventories are production, sufficient for whereas about 20 stocks to 23 of aging tobaccos normally are maintained to equal a three-year supply!
From Time Magazine Archive
With the conspicuous exception of oils, shoes, drugs, foods, chain stores and tobaccos, industrial earnings practically disappeared, amounted to less than one-thirtieth of 1931 earnings.
From Time Magazine Archive
Closely related species replace each other geographically among the amaranths, beans, chenopods, chili peppers, cottons, squashes, and tobaccos.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
