Please in your own words define the difference between "smell", "aroma" and "scent"?

Question

thank you....

they don't seem interchangeable to me ....how do you use them? ....and add "a perfume" ....which also seems to be more than the substance used to scent our bodies ...

the French use "parfumee" to mean flavored or scented ..and the Germans "aromatisiert" for the same ...

thank you

xxxxx
Scots Pines

Answer 1

smell - an odour pleasant or unpleasant
aroma - sweet fragrance or an aroma coming from cooked food freshly made, usually appetising
scent - sweet perfume or body odour of man or animal that can be tracked
perfume - a manufactured fragrance bought for it's individual aroma

Answer 2

They can all be used as nouns, and 'smell' can also be used as a verb.
As nouns, the difference between them is what we call 'connotation and collocation.' Although they may all be synonyms, we use them in different situations (collocation) and to express different feelings (connotation).
For example, 'there's a funny smell in here' (can you imagine substituting one of the other words in this situation? Probably not). 'The food had an interesting aroma' (again, you would probably not use 'smell' or 'scent' in this sentence).
In most cases, we can not use the three words interchangeably. One would always be the obvious choice, and a native speaker of English would always know which one.

Answer 3

A perfume seems to be a liquid you can add to the body. "Smell" can be a verb I think so you have to smell it, as in its a conscious scent. I also think it has more negative conotations. 'Aroma' seems to me to be a smell generated by an action and 'Scent' to me is more possesive. Blank has a scent e.g.

Answer 4

"Smell" is a verb, as in "I smell a rat." To smell is to perceive through the olfactory sense.

Aroma and scent may be interchangeable, although I've always thought of "aroma" as something naturally occurring, while a "scent" is usually applied deliberately to be perceived through an olfactory sense.

Answer 5

Smell is an action we do, aroma is the oder of something, and scent is what a particular thing smells like.

Answer 6

To me smell means unpleasant. an aroma means it cold be pleasant or not too bad. Scent just means a fragrance or nice.

Answer 7

smell is usually an unpleasant odor.
aroma is something nice and suaveolent
scent is associated with a particular thing,it is also a noun as in estee lauder makes good scent.

Answer 8

A fact is a specific data point. -1<1 is a fact. A truth is not necessarily specific. Negative numbers are less than positive numbers is a truth.