smell
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air carrying airborne molecules of a substance.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
smehlIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsmɛl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.
physiology
The sense that detects odours.
A conclusion or intuition that a situation is wrong, more complex than it seems, or otherwise inappropriate.
verb
by extension
To detect or perceive; often with out.
intransitivefigurative
To have a particular tincture or smack of any quality; to savour.
transitive
To sense a smell or smells.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, detected by inhaling air (or, the case of water-breathing animals, water) carrying airborne molecules of a substance.
Used this way, smell is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use smell
- “She loved the smell of roses.”noun
- “He rarely washes, and he smells.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The act of perceiving the odor of something.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Recognize or detect by or as if by smelling.
Cause to smell bad.
A bottle containing smelling salts.
A pungent preparation of ammonium carbonate and perfume.
Having an unpleasant smell.
Having an unpleasant smell.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.