What is the difference between odor and smell?
odor | smell |
Any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume.
* 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X
(figuratively) A strong, pervasive quality.
Esteem; repute.
A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.
* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
(physiology) The sense that detects odours.
To sense a smell or smells.
To have a particular smell, whether good or bad; if descriptive, followed by "like" or "of".
* , chapter=8
, title= (without a modifier) To smell bad; to stink.
(figurative) To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savour.
* (John Milton)
(obsolete) To exercise sagacity.
To detect or perceive; often with out .
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) To give heed to.
* Latimer
Smell is a synonym of odor.
As nouns the difference between odor and smell
is that odor is any smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume while smell is a sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.As a verb smell is
to sense a smell or smells.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.
Usage notes
In the United States, the term "odor" often has a negative connotation. Preferred terms for a pleasant odor are "fragrance", "scent", or "aroma".Synonyms
* (any smell) perfume, scent * (esteem) esteem, repute * See alsoDerived terms
* odorous * odorously * odorousnessAnagrams
* ----smell
English
Noun
- I love the smell of fresh bread.
- The penetrating smell' of cabbage reached the nose of Toad as he lay prostrate in his misery on the floor, and gave him the idea for a moment that perhaps life was not such a blank and desperate thing as he had imagined. But still he wailed, and kicked with his legs, and refused to be comforted. So the wise girl retired for the time, but, of course, a good deal of the ' smell of hot cabbage remained behind, as it will do, and Toad, between his sobs, sniffed and reflected, and gradually began to think new and inspiring thoughts: of chivalry, and poetry...
Usage notes
* Adjectives often applied to "smell": sweet, good, nice, great, pleasant, fresh, fragrant, bad, foul, unpleasant, horrible, terrible, awful, nasty, disgusting, funny, strange, odd, sour, funky, metallic, stinky, rotten, rancid, putrid, rank, fishy.Synonyms
* (sensation) ** (pleasant) aroma, fragrance, odor/odour, scent ** (unpleasant) odor/odour, niff (informal), pong (informal), reek, stench, stink, whiff (informal) * (sense) olfaction (in technical use), sense of smell * See alsoVerb
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=Philander went into the next room
- Praises in an enemy are superfluous, or smell of craft.
- (Shakespeare)
- I smell a device.
- From that time forward I began to smell the Word of God, and forsook the school doctors.