tobacco

UK/təˈbækəʊ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/təˈbakəw/

tobacco noun: any plant of the genus Nicotiana.

Noun

tobacco (countable and uncountable, plural tobaccos or tobaccoes)

(uncountable) Any plant of the genus Nicotiana.
(uncountable) Leaves of Nicotiana tabacum and some other species cultivated and harvested to make cigarettes, cigars, snuff, for smoking in pipes or for chewing.
- Tobacco and the plant valerian are also considered to be anaphrodisiac in their effects, diminishing sexual inclination.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 11
- Tobacco-settlement bonds are a tribute both to the inventiveness of bankers and the childlike impatience of politicians.2013 September 7, “Unlucky strike”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2020
(countable) A variety of tobacco.
- Tobaccos from the Connecticut Valley were used for wrapping cigars.

Verb

tobacco (third-person singular simple present tobaccos, present participle tobaccoing, simple past and past participle tobaccoed)

(intransitive) To indulge in tobacco; to smoke.
(transitive) To treat with tobacco.
- The most satisfactory method of tobaccoing houses is that of stitching the leaves on to a piece of cloth like a strip of matting, which is then laid on the floor. Powdered tobacco should be introduced into rat holes, which can then be firmly closed up with bricks and mortar. Experiments carried out...1918, Tropical Diseases Bulletin, volume 12, page 412

Proper noun capitalized: Tobacco

Tobacco

Two rivers in Michigan, United States.
A township in Gladwin County, Michigan, probably named after one of the rivers.

tobacco meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

tobacco in Hindi

any plant of the genus Nicotiana: तम्बाकू tambākū, सुलफ़ा sulfā
leaves of certain varieties of tobacco plant: तंबाकू tambākū

tobacco in Tamil

any plant of the genus Nicotiana: புகையிலை pukaiyilai, தம்பாக்கு tampākku
leaves of certain varieties of tobacco plant: புகையிலை pukaiyilai

tobacco in Marathi

any plant of the genus Nicotiana: तंबाखू tambākhū

tobacco in Urdu

any plant of the genus Nicotiana: تَمْباکُو tambākū, تَنْباکُو tanbākū
leaves of certain varieties of tobacco plant: تَمْباکُو tambākū, تَنْباکُو tanbākū

More languagesFewer languages

tobacco in Bengali: তামাক tamak
tobacco in Telugu: పొగాకు pogāku, తంబాకు tambāku
tobacco in Malayalam: പുകയില pukayila, തമ്പാക്ക് tampākkŭ
tobacco in Kannada: ತಂಬಾಕು tambāku
tobacco in Punjabi: ਤਮਾਕੂ tamākū, تَماکُو tamākū
tobacco in Gujarati: તમાકુ tamāku
tobacco in Odia: ତମାଖୁ tamākhu
tobacco in Sinhala: දුම්කොළ dumkoḷa
tobacco in Assamese: ধঁপাত dhõpat
tobacco in Nepali: तमाखु tamākhu, सुर्ती surtī
tobacco in Pashto: تنباکو tanbāku, تمباکو tambāku
tobacco in Tagalog: tabako
tobacco in Arabic: تِبْغ tibḡ, تَبْغ tabḡ, دُخَان duḵān, دُخَّان duḵḵān
tobacco in Malay: tembakau
tobacco in Indonesian: tembakau
tobacco in Thai: ยาสูบ yaa-sùup, บุหรี่ bù-rìi
tobacco in Vietnamese: thuốc lá
tobacco in Myanmar: ဆေး hce:

Examples of tobacco in a sentence

Grandpa sat on the front porch, hawking and wheezing, as he packed his pipe with cheap tobacco.
The first time he chewed tobacco, he swallowed his chew and got extremely sick.
Starting in January we will raise (introduce) taxes on all tobacco substitutes and vaping accessories.

All 40 example sentences with tobacco

Forms of tobacco

Noun
plural	tobaccos
plural	tobaccoes
alternative form (obsolete)	tabacco
Verb
third-person singular present	tobaccos
present participle	tobaccoing
past participle	tobaccoed
past	tobaccoed

Plural of tobacco: tobaccos

Origin of tobacco

Attested since 1588, borrowed from Spanish tabaco. The Spanish word could be from Arabic طُبَّاق (ṭubbāq, “Dittrichia viscosa”) or from a Caribbean language such as Kari'na or Taíno or multiple of them, from a word meaning "roll of tobacco leaves" or "a pipe for smoking tobacco," such as tabago (“tube for inhaling smoke or powdered intoxicating plants”).

Words formed from tobacco

Phrases with tobacco

Words that rhyme with tobacco

Questions about tobacco

What does tobacco mean?: Tobacco means any plant of the genus Nicotiana.
What is tobacco in Hindi?: Tobacco in Hindi is तम्बाकू (tambākū), सुलफ़ा (sulfā), तंबाकू (tambākū). See Tobacco meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is tobacco?: Tobacco can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tobacco?: Tobacco is pronounced /təˈbækəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of tobacco?: The plural of tobacco is tobaccos.

Words near tobacco in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tobacco (page history and authors); Tobacco (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tobacco.ogg.

Cite this entry: “tobacco.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tobacco. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.