Types of Smells | Types of Fragrances

Smell

As we all know Smell is the property of a thing that affects the olfactory organs.

OR

Smell is a particular quality that others can notice with their noses.

In this post, we will learn how to talk about different kinds of smells and fragrances.

You all must have definitely experienced some good smells and also some bad smells. So, the smell is a neutral word that can be used for a good smell or a bad smell. But how do you understand whether it is used for a good one or a bad one, you can understand that through an example or through a context by understanding the words which are used around the word smell so if we say that I love the smell of baked bread. obviously, that’s a good smell.

So, we can use it for a good smell when I hear the word love, I know that it’s a good smell then we can also use it for a bad smell when we say that oh those shoes are smelling so bad then obviously we know that it can be used for a bad smell as well.

Smell	Good Smell
	Bad Smell

Stinks

Let’s look at the next word that we have something that stinks. ‘Stinks’ also means going ahead the bad side of the word smell. We can also use the word stinks so something that stinks smells very unpleasant and not so nice, so you could say that Oh! the kitchen stinks, this means that the kitchen is stinking and here the word stink is a verb it smells bad we can also use the word stink as a noun by saying that Oh! there is a real stink coming from the washbasin yeah that’s where you’re using the word stink as a noun so you can use it as a noun but when you use it as a noun there will be no ‘s’ so there’s a real stink coming out of the washbasin.

We can also use the words stink as an adjective, not just a verb, not just a noun but also an adjective. So when something is very stinky that’s how the word becomes an adjective when we say that it is stinky and sometimes the word stinky is also used in a positive way by trying to say how good it is so you could say that I love the stinky goat cheese so because obviously, we know that the goat cheese smells slightly bad but you love that smell of the goat cheese because you love eating goat cheese. So sometimes you can use it positively to admire a smell.

Stinks	Stinky (Adjective)
	Stinks (Noun)
	Smells bad (Verb)

Reeks

In place of stink, we can also use the word ‘reeks‘, which is also used for an unpleasant smell, you could say that the house reeks of smoke this means that you could smell smoke almost everywhere in the house. So, reeks means just like stinks is used for an unpleasant smell.

Reeks

used for an unpleasant smell (Verb)

Whiffy

The next word that we have is ‘whiffy’, whiffy is used when something is slightly stale but not very stale. So, if you have not had a bath for a number of days then you are smelling whiffy, so when someone has not taken a bath for a couple of days and they’re smelling bad instead of saying that you’re smelling bad, you could say that you’re starting to get a bit whiffy which means you’re starting to smell a bit bad so this is used for slightly rotten smell.

When you’re trying to say that I caught a whiff means you caught a particular smell, it could be good or bad or just a particular smell so like there’s a particular smell when somebody shaves and after shaving smell is very particular, so you could say that I caught a whiffy when he passed next to me or I caught a whiff of after shave when I passed by him.

Whiffy	Slightly rotten smell
	Catch/get a whiff

Pungent

You could also use whiff with the word ‘pungent’ so pungent means a very strong and bitter smell, it’s it’s more than unpleasant because it’s bitter and it’s very very strong so when you go to a fish market you get a pungent whiff, so you can use pungent and whiff together by saying that when I went to the fish market I got a pungent whiff.

Pungent

a strong and bitter smell.

Acrid

The next one is an ‘acrid’ smell, so acrid is a kind of smell when you taste something burning, so if you pass a building which caught fire some time ago you can see clouds of smoke rising from the building and when you pass by a building like that you have an accurate smell and that the accurate smell is when you taste the burning sensation in your throat and your mouth and you’re just not able to breathe you’re feeling choked so accurate is a burning smell this smell is so strong that you almost start tasting it in your mouth. Whenever something is burning you almost feel like you’re tasting it and you just can’t breathe.

Acrid

Burning smell

Fetid

The next one we have is a ‘fetid’ smell so fetid is used when something is stale very very stale like if you go into a building in which you know the windows and the doors had not opened for a very long time and for years no one had been there and you go there you are possibly buying an apartment or something like that had not opened for a long time you get that fetid smell that stale smell that it had not opened and there’s no fresh air so fetid is when there’s lack of fresh air

Fetid

Lack of Fresh Air or stale smell

Musty

The next one is a ‘musty’ smell, so musty is the kind of smell that you get in the library,  for some people they love it, for some people they don’t like it too much, people who love reading books they would love a musty smell, it’s sort of not actually a bad smell but it’s the kind of smell that you get from something which is damp, usually slightly wet and very old paper books kind of smell you get in a library, so you could say that I love the musty fragrance in the library and if you don’t like it you could say I love them I don’t like the musty smell of books so please remove these books something like that you can use it in both positive and negative ways.

Musty

Damp and old

Putrid

The next one is ‘putrid’ which is used when something has decayed, it’s a smell of decay so decay is when something you know has completely rotten, rotten smells terrible like rotten meat, so you could say I hate the smell of putrid meat or the rotten meat smells putrid, you could use it like that as well, so with that we come to an end of this so-called very bad smells and slightly bad smells, very bad smells, you can choose the words that you want to choose for the degree of smell that you have experienced.

Putrid

Smell of Decay

Fragrances

The next one that we have is ‘fragrance’ which is  very common word and that’s also the the topic of our post, so the fragrance is a sweet note that you get from flowers and that’s how you can remember this word from ‘f’, we have fragrance from ‘f’, we have flowers so the sweet smell of flowers. So you could say that the flowers have a delicate fragrance this means that they have a sweet and nice soft fragrance.

Fragrance

Sweet smell of flowers

Aroma

Now we’re going to look at some good smells which we all love the first one that we have with us is ‘aroma’, so aroma is the kind of smell that you get from food and drinks and it’s a fragrance that makes you want to eat the food, you can smell the aroma of rice or you can smell the aroma of cheese and you want to have it, so it’s a smell from food or drinks and if something smells very good you could also say that the food smells aromatic which naturally means that the food smells good and you could say that the food smells aromatic.

Aroma

Smell from drinks or food.

Scent

The ‘scent’ is a particular smell, just like aroma, it’s a particular aroma that you get from something, for example, if you’ve candles,  candles might have a scent that might smell good, some people also use scent in place of the word perfume but it’s not actually a correct usage, a perfume should be called a perfume and not a scent.

Scent

Lovely smell

Bouquet

The next one that we have is ‘bouquet’, when we think of a bouquet as a noun, bouquet also means a lot of flowers a group of flowers packed together and when you offer it to someone that you love very much but bouquet otherwise again as a noun also means a particular type of fragrance it’s a good fragrance, it’s a good smell that’s why it’s a fragrance and this is the fragrance that you get from wine or liquor of any sort, so you could say that my favorite white wine is my favorite white wine from Argentina is my favorite because it has got oaky bouquet, oaky is a particular type of trees and this is the kind of fragrance that you get from white wine, so you could say that white wine has an oaky bouquet and not an oaky fragrance because here you’re talking about wine so whenever you talk about the aroma from liquor you would use the word bouquet.

Bouquet

Smell of wine

Gives off

The next one that we have gives off something that ‘gives off ‘,so he this is a phrasal verb because it has a preposition and a verb and you can use these together to talk about the fragrance or the smell that comes out of something, so you could say that rusting iron gives off a strange smell this means a strange smell comes out of rusting iron, so gives off means comes out and you can use this phrase to talk about all of these smells not just one of them.

Gives off

Comes out