Meaning & use
chimney
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Meanings
nouncountable
A vertical pipe or structure that carries smoke and gases from a fire or furnace up and out of a building.
Grammar: Countable: a chimney, two chimneys.
Patterns
- a chimney on a house
- smoke from a chimney
Smoke curled from the cottage chimney.
The chimney needs sweeping before winter.
They built a tall brick chimney for the new stove.
nouncountablespecialist
A narrow vertical opening in rock that a climber can use to go up or down.
Grammar: Countable; used in climbing contexts.
Patterns
- climb a chimney
- a narrow chimney
The climber squeezed up the chimney in the rock face.
That chimney is too narrow for a beginner.
Word forms
| plural | chimneys |
|---|
Common combinations
- chimney sweep
- The chimney sweep arrived with a long brush.
- chimney pot
- A clay chimney pot sat on top of the stack.
- chimney stack
- The chimney stack rose above the roof.
- smoke from a chimney
- We could see smoke from a chimney in the distance.
Synonyms and how they differ
- flue
- Flue is the inner passage that carries smoke; chimney can mean the whole outer structure.
- smokestack
- Smokestack usually refers to a tall factory or ship funnel, not a house chimney.
Word family
- chimney sweep noun
- A person whose job is to clean chimneys.
- chimney pot noun
- A short pipe on top of a chimney.
Commonly confused: chimney or chimney?
chimney vs chimney
Not to be confused with 'chimney' as a verb; it is almost always a noun.
Practice
Smoke was rising from the ______ of the old farmhouse.
Choose one answer.
The singular countable noun 'chimney' fits after 'the'; 'chimneys' would need a plural context, and the other forms are not nouns here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “chimney”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.