the property of a substance that activates the sense of smell: to have an unpleasant odor.
a sensation perceived by the sense of smell; scent.
an agreeable scent; fragrance.
a disagreeable smell.
a quality or property characteristic or suggestive of something: An odor of suspicion surrounded his testimony.
repute: in bad odor with the whole community.
Archaic. something that has a pleasant scent.
Also especially British, o·dour .
Origin of odor
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin
SYNONYMS FOR odor
3 aroma, redolence, perfume.
SEE SYNONYMS FOR odor ON THESAURUS.COM
synonym study for odor
3. Odor,smell,scent,stench all refer to sensations perceived through the nose by the olfactory nerves. Odor and smell in literal contexts are often interchangeable. Figuratively, odor also usually occurs in positive contexts: the odor of sanctity.Smell is the most general and neutral of these two terms, deriving connotation generally from the context in which it is used: the tempting smell of fresh-baked bread; the rank smell of rotting vegetation. In figurative contexts smell may be either positive or negative: the sweet smell of success; a strong smell of duplicity pervading the affair.Scent refers either to delicate and pleasing aromas or to faint, barely perceptible smells: the scent of lilacs on the soft spring breeze; deer alarmed by the scent of man.Stench is strongly negative, referring both literally and figuratively to what is foul, sickening, or repulsive: the stench of rotting flesh; steeped in the stench of iniquity and treason.
It might seem obvious, but it will clear out a lot of lingering odors.
Working out at home? Here’s how to keep your house from smelling like a gym.|Harry Guinness|September 3, 2020|Popular Science
To make better sense of the data, the team then combined all their data into a mathematical model of our sense of odors.
A Highway to Smell: How Scientists Used Light to Incept Smell in Mice|Shelly Fan|July 1, 2020|Singularity Hub
They trained the mice so that the animals only licked a water spout when they “smelled” the artificial odor, generated by a light pattern and “unlikely to correspond to specific known chemical odorants” in nature, the team explained.
A Highway to Smell: How Scientists Used Light to Incept Smell in Mice|Shelly Fan|July 1, 2020|Singularity Hub
After “smelling” the synthetic odor, mice reliably licked the correct spout.
How to make a mouse smell a smell that doesn’t actually exist|Laura Sanders|June 18, 2020|Science News
The synthetic odor didn’t objectively exist, but the mice behaved as though they smelled it anyway, the researchers found.
How to make a mouse smell a smell that doesn’t actually exist|Laura Sanders|June 18, 2020|Science News
They emit an odor that no human being should inhale, and yet you have.
Whatever You Do Someone Will Die. A Short Story About Impossible Choices in Iraq|Nathan Bradley Bethea|August 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
And, typing that, it occurs to me how rarely we hear modern Americans use the word happy without an odor of irony.
What Did TJ Mean By “Pursuit of Happiness,” Anyway?|P. J. O’Rourke|June 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
When Sterling first bought the Ardmore, he remarked on its odor to Davenport.
Clippers Bigot Donald Sterling Doesn’t Want Blacks at ‘His Games’|Robert Silverman|April 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The odor wrenched the stomach and made one hesitant to breathe.
‘The Land of the Permanent Wave’ Is Bud Shrake’s Classic Take on ‘60s Texas|Edwin Shrake|February 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I could forgive Christie for Bridgegate if he could just eliminate this odor.
Bridgegate Looks Almost Good Next to New Jersey’s Other Embarrassments|Dean Obeidallah|January 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The odor of good food attracted Tatsu's senses if not his eyes.
The Dragon Painter|Mary McNeil Fenollosa
Its nose caught the odor of a piece of oogzuk blubber a few feet beyond.
My Attainment of the Pole|Frederick A. Cook
And I have yet to find one that has an odor that could be called a perfume.
A Year in the Fields|John Burroughs
Their odor is peculiar—not fecal, but musty and offensive, and occasionally almost odorless.
A System of Practical Medicine By American Authors, Vol. II|Various
There was a perceptible, and not ungrateful, odor of cooking present.