Smell vs Essence - What's the difference?
smell | essence | Related terms |
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
(senseid)The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
* Landor
* Addison
* Courthorpe
(philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
Constituent substance.
* Milton
A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
* Milton
* Washington Irving
A significant feature of something.
The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.
* essence of Jojoba
Fragrance, a perfume.
* Alexander Pope
Smell is a related term of essence.
As nouns the difference between smell and essence
is that 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 while essence is (senseid)the inherent nature of a thing or idea.As a verb smell
is to sense a smell or smells.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.
Usage notes
The sense "to smell bad, stink" is considered by some to be an incorrect substitute for stink.Synonyms
* (sense a smell or smells) detect, sense * (have the smell of) (all followed by'' like''' ''or'' ' of ) ** (pleasant) ** (unpleasant) pong (informal), reek, stink, whiff (informal)Derived terms
* code smells * sense of smell (see olfaction) * smell a rat * smell blood * smell like a rose * smell of an oily rag * smell test * smell the barn * smelly * wake up and smell the coffeeSee also
* anosmia * senseReferences
* *essence
English
Noun
(en noun)- The laws are at present, both in form and essence , the greatest curse that society labours under.
- Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence of this virtue [charity].
- The essence of Addison's humour is irony.
- Uncompounded is their essence pure.
- As far as gods and heavenly essences / Can perish.
- He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences , until he had an ideal world of his own around him.
- Nor let the essences exhale.
