water pipes

Implication:
hookah -> water_pipe
bong -> water_pipe

Alias:
shisha -> hookah
edit: nargile -> hookah
Reason: another common name for hookah used in Europe and the Middle East

That's really not the first thing I'd think of when seeing "water pipe," but then again I also admit my lack of knowledge of those devices.

Some sources seem to indicate that it's one word "waterpipe," instead of two words. One such source is the World Health Organization.

But "water pipe" (and even more so "waterpipe") sorta suggests something like this.

I know that there is no distinction between pipe (smoking) and pipe (tube-like) in English. See also forum #54061
Here, pipe (singular) refers to the one you smoke, and pipes (plural) is used the others.

That's rather... nonintuitive. How about making either of shisha/hookah/bong the canonical tag to which water_pipe is aliased, just to make it clear and unambiguous?

There's also lead_pipe as well, which is more for weaponized purposes.
Possibly related wiki on municipal water pipes.

Bong and Hookah are definitely different enough to have their own tags.
Bong Google Image Search
Hookah Google Image Search

An umbrella tag isn't that important (yet) with only 24 water pipe images, but would nonetheless be convenient.

S1eth said:
I know that there is no distinction between pipe (smoking) and pipe (tube-like) in English. See also forum #54061
Here, pipe (singular) refers to the one you smoke, and pipes (plural) is used the others.

This actually somehow seems backwards to me, a "smoking pipe" is a countable noun capable of being pluralized, whereas "pipe (for transporting fluid)" is often used as a mass noun without a plural form: "We installed 100 feet of pipe in the new building".

Even that doesn't work though since neither smoking pipes nor fluid pipes make natural pairs or sets so they should both be kept singular.

It seems like it would be best to move pipe to smoking_pipe or something like that and move pipes to piping or something like that, which would make things clear and unambiguous.

As for water_pipe, in my mind that would normally mean "water piping for transporting water". "Water smoking pipe" sounds clumsy and unintuitive. Perhaps with the qualifier at the end water_pipe_(smoking)?

Shinjidude said: It seems like it would be best to move pipe to smoking_pipe or something like that and move pipes to piping or something like that, which would make things clear and unambiguous.

This sounds like easily the best solution to me.

I'd prefer pipes → plumbing, myself. More specific.