Smokestack Meaning
/ˈsmoʊkˌstæk/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA conduit or group of conduits atop a structure allowing smoke to flow out, as on a steam locomotive, ship, factory, or power plant using fossil fuels.
Sentence Examples
This smokestack is releasing greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The tall ____ of the factory released black smoke into the air.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The giant ____ of the old power plant dominated the skyline of the industrial town.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree English smoke English stack English smokestack From smoke + stack.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"With its long tapered cowcatcher, massive headlamp and enormous diamond smokestack behind, wagon-top boiler, high running-plate above the driving-wheels reached from a front door in the square side-window cab, cylinders with slide valves mounted on top, and double bogie tender, General in its present form is typical of much earlier American locomotive practice."
— 1942 February 26, “Notes and News: An Historic American Locomotive”, in Railway Magazine, page 56:
"One of those areas can be found at the city’s northern edge, where the towering smokestacks of Wuhan Iron and Steel loom behind bent-backed farmers tending vegetable patches. Today Qingshan district is a patchwork of tiny fields, polluted streams and roadside markets selling building materials. But the city government is in the process of transforming this no-man’s-land into a sparkling new suburb. Between the steelworks and the mighty Yangtze River, demolished buildings and hoardings advertise a new logistics centre. Down the road, a giant railway station (Wuhan’s third) and a 6-kilometre bridge (the city’s fifth to cross the Yangtze) were completed in 2010."
— 2012, Tom Miller, “The Construction Orgy: Paving the Fields”, in China's Urban Billion: The Story Behind the Biggest Migration in Human History, Zed Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 137:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The tall ____ of the factory released black smoke into the air.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The giant ____ of the old power plant dominated the skyline of the industrial town.