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smokestack

/ˌsmoʊkˈstæk/

Other forms: smokestacks

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.

Definitions of smokestack
  1. noun
    a large tall chimney through which combustion gases and smoke can be evacuated
    synonyms: stack
    see moresee less
    types:
    funnel
    (nautical) smokestack consisting of a shaft for ventilation or the passage of smoke (especially the smokestack of a ship)
    type of:
    chimney
    a vertical flue that provides a path through which smoke from a fire is carried away through the wall or roof of a building
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