Smilodon laevis was named by Plieninger (1846). Its type specimen is SMNS 6045, a maxilla, and it is a 3D body fossil. Its type locality is Swäbisch Hall, Gaildorf, which is in a Ladinian terrestrial horizon in the Erfurt Formation of Germany. It is the type species of Zanclodon, Smilodon.

It was synonymized objectively with Zanclodon plieningeri by Fraas (1900); it was misspelled as Zanclodon levis by Seeley (1895); it was considered a nomen dubium by Steel (1970); it was considered a nomen vanum by Welles (1984); it was recombined as Zanclodon laevis by Plieninger (1847), Plieninger (1849), Quenstedt (1852), Meyer (1855), Quenstedt (1856), Quenstedt (1867), Fraas (1879), Seeley (1880), Quenstedt (1882), Thürach (1889), Zittel (1890), Fraas (1896), Fraas (1897), Spangenberg (1898), Blanckenhorn (1898), Nopcsa (1901), Huene (1905), von Zittel (1911), Huene (1914), Huene (1914), Perrier (1928), Seemann (1933), Schmidt (1938), Kuhn (1939), Kuhn (1971) and Schoch (2011).