parosmia
Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- noun A distorted sense of smell, often resulting in phantom, non-existent, and mostly unpleasant, smells.
Examples
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Note that phantosmia is different from another disorder of sense of smell, known as parosmia, in which a smell is present in your environment but is distorted.
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When the temporal lobe seizes, as it might during an epileptic incident, the onset is frequently marked by phantom smells, a condition called phantosmia (not to be confused with parosmia in which a present smell is distorted).
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However, occasionally patients may also present with parosmia (a distortion of the sense of smell), phantosmia (smelling things that aren't there), or permanent damage of the olfactory system.
Note
The word 'parosmia' comes from the prefix 'para-' in the sense 'abnormal' and a Greek root meaning 'smell'.