SMELL
What does "SMELL" mean?
The faculty of perceiving odors, or a quality perceived through the nose.
Meanings
- The sense by which odors are perceived. A cold dulls your sense of smell.
- A particular odor or scent. The smell of fresh bread filled the kitchen.
- To perceive an odor through the nose. I can smell rain coming.
- To give off an odor, especially an unpleasant one. The garbage was starting to smell.
- To detect or sense by intuition. A good detective can smell a lie. figurative
Did you know?
- Humans can distinguish roughly a trillion different smells, far more than the few thousand once assumed, according to a 2014 study in Science.
Word origin
From Middle English 'smellen', of uncertain origin and with no clear cognate in other Germanic languages, which makes its source unusually obscure for so basic a word.
Remember it
SMELL has a double-L like two nostrils side by side, drawing the scent in.
A little poem
Rain on hot pavement-
before the eye sees water
the nose says it's here.
haiku
Wordplay
- My nose stopped working, so I asked it what was wrong - it couldn't tell, it had no sense.
What it teaches
Smell reaches memory before reason does; trust the hunch that arrives without words.
Quick facts
What does SMELL mean?
The faculty of perceiving odors, or a quality perceived through the nose.
Is SMELL a valid word?
Yes — SMELL is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is SMELL?
SMELL has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does SMELL come from?
From Middle English 'smellen', of uncertain origin and with no clear cognate in other Germanic languages, which makes its source unusually obscure for so basic a word.
What can SMELL teach us?
Smell reaches memory before reason does; trust the hunch that arrives without words.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.