What does smoker mean?
A smoker is primarily a person who habitually smokes tobacco. The term may refer to anyone who regularly smokes cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or similar products, and it is often used in discussions of health, addiction, cessation, and regulation. Unlike the more specific expression cigarette smoker, smoker can apply to several forms of tobacco. The word also has a technical culinary sense: a smoker is an appliance or chamber in which food is exposed to smoke, sometimes as a method of preservation and more often as a way of developing flavor. In this sense, it appears in terms such as hot smoker, cold smoker, and electric smoker. Although the two meanings share the idea of smoke, one concerns the person doing the smoking, while the other names the equipment used in food preparation.
A person who habitually smokes tobacco or another substance.
"The clinic offers advice and support to smokers seeking to quit."
This is the dominant modern sense and is neutral in form, though it may carry health-related or social connotations in context.
An appliance or chamber used to expose food to smoke for preserving or flavoring it.
"The smoker maintained a steady temperature throughout the night."
This sense is chiefly culinary and technical, and is often qualified by hot, cold, or electric.
The standard plural refers to multiple people who smoke.
"The survey included former smokers and people who had never smoked."
The word smoker can describe either a person who lights up or the barbecue appliance that gives food its smoky flavor.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does smoker come from?
The word combines smoke with the suffix -er, a productive English suffix identifying a person who performs an action. Smoke itself has Germanic ancestry and can be traced to Old English usage. The culinary sense developed by applying the same noun to equipment or a chamber in which food is smoked.
Related word forms
How smoker is actually used
When referring to a tobacco user, the term is straightforward but may carry health-related or social stigma depending on context. In cooking, it is usually part of a more specific expression such as hot smoker, cold smoker, or electric smoker.