Fume vs Odor - What's the difference?
fume | odor |
A gas or vapour/vapor that smells strongly or is dangerous to inhale. Fumes are solid particles formed by condensation from the gaseous state, e.g. metal oxides from volatilized metals. They can flocculate and coalesce. Their particle size is between 0.1 and 1 micron. (A micron is one millionth of a metre)
* T. Warton
A material that has been vaporized from the solid state to the gas state and re-coalesced to the solid state.
Rage or excitement which deprives the mind of self-control.
Anything unsubstantial or airy; idle conceit; vain imagination.
* Francis Bacon
The incense of praise; inordinate flattery.
* Burton
To emit fumes.
* Milton
* Roscommon
To expose something (especially wood) to ammonia fumes in order to produce dark tints.
To feel or express great anger.
* Dryden
* Sir Walter Scott
To be as in a mist; to be dulled and stupefied.
* Shakespeare
To pass off in fumes or vapours.
* Cheyne
Any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume.
* 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X
(figuratively) A strong, pervasive quality.
Esteem; repute.
As nouns the difference between fume and odor
is that fume is a gas or vapour/vapor that smells strongly or is dangerous to inhale. Fumes are solid particles formed by condensation from the gaseous state, e.g. metal oxides from volatilized metals. They can flocculate and coalesce. Their particle size is between 0.1 and 1 micron. (A micron is one millionth of a metre while odor is any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume.As a verb fume
is to emit fumes.fume
English
Noun
(en noun)- Don't stand around in there breathing the fumes while the adhesive cures.
- the fumes of new shorn hay
- the fumes of passion
- (South)
- a show of fumes and fancies
- to smother him with fumes and eulogies
Verb
(fum)- where the golden altar fumed
- Silenus lay, / Whose constant cups lay fuming to his brain.
- He's still fuming about the argument they had yesterday.
- He frets, he fumes , he stares, he stamps the ground.
- Her mother did fret, and her father did fume .
- Keep his brain fuming .
- Their parts are kept from fuming away by their fixity.
Usage notes
* In the sense of strong-smelling or dangerous vapor, the noun is typically plural, as in the example. ----odor
English
(wikipedia odor)Alternative forms
* odourNoun
- Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odour of camphor was unmistakable.