smokescreen
/ˈsmoʊkˌskɹin/
smokescreen noun: smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover, as of troops in battle.
Noun
smokescreen (plural smokescreens)
- Smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover, as of troops in battle.
- Ensign Whitely began to tell of the surprise encounter of Admiral Sprague’s escort-carrier force with the main battle line of the Japanese Navy off Samar, in a chaos of rain squalls and smoke screens.1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Chapter 25, Part 5, p. 284
- C.I.E. Class "D14" 4-4-0 No. 89 covers its tracks with a magnificent smokescreen as it pulls out of Dun Laoghaire with the 9.0 a.m. boat train for Dublin.1959 September, “Talking of Trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 401, photo caption
- Anything used metaphorically to conceal or distract.
- All that talk is just a smokescreen to disguise the fact that he has nothing to say.
- It was all very plausible and, as he poured out his smokescreen of words, I became fidgety for fear Fallon would be too direct with him.1968, Desmond Bagley, chapter 8, in The Vivero Letter, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 163
smokescreen meaning in Malayalam, Kannada, Arabic and Vietnamese
smokescreen in Malayalam
- smokescreen
- പുകമറ pukamaṟa
smokescreen in Kannada
- ಹೊಗೆಮರೆ, ದಟ್ಟಹೊಗೆಯ ರಕ್ಷಣೆ, ಧೂಮಪಟ, ಮರೆಮಾಚುವುದು, ಮುಚ್ಚಿಡುವುದು
smokescreen in Arabic
- smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover
- سِتَار دُخَانِيّ sitār duḵāniyy
smokescreen in Vietnamese
- smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover
- hoả mù
- anything used (metaphorically) to conceal or distract
- hoả mù
Forms of smokescreen
| plural | smokescreens |
|---|---|
| alternative form | smoke screen |
| alternative form | smoke-screen |
Origin of smokescreen
From smoke + screen.
Questions about smokescreen
- What does smokescreen mean?
- Smokescreen means smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover, as of troops in battle.
- What is smokescreen in Malayalam?
- Smokescreen in Malayalam is പുകമറ (pukamaṟa). See Smokescreen meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is smokescreen?
- Smokescreen is a noun.
- How do you pronounce smokescreen?
- Smokescreen is pronounced /ˈsmoʊkˌskɹin/ (US).
- What is the plural of smokescreen?
- The plural of smokescreen is smokescreens.
Words near smokescreen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: smokescreen (page history and authors); പുകമറ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); smokescreen (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-smokescreen.ogg.
Cite this entry: “smokescreen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smokescreen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.