Pungent vs Smell - What's the difference?
pungent | smell |
Having a strong odor that stings the nose, said especially of acidic or spicy substances.
* 1991 , , Concrete: American Christmas , Dark Horse Books
Having a strong taste that stings the tongue, said especially of hot (spicy) food, which has a strong and sharp or bitter taste.
Stinging; acerbic.
Having a sharp and stiff point.
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
As an adjective pungent
is having a strong odor that stings the nose, said especially of acidic or spicy substances.As a noun 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.pungent
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- The lasagne included plenty of pungent garlic.
- I can almost smell the fir scent… resinous, pungent .
- The critic gave a pungent review.
Derived terms
* pungence * pungentlysmell
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.