Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A quality that can be perceived by the olfactory sense: synonym: smell.
  • noun A characteristic, usually pleasant odor, as of a plant, spice, or food: synonym: fragrance.
  • noun A distinctive, intangible quality; an aura.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Spice: usually in the plural, spices.
  • noun An odor arising from spices, plants, or other substances, more especially an agreeable odor; fragrance; spicy perfume.
  • noun Figuratively, a characteristic but subtle quality; a pervasive charm or flavor.
  • noun Synonyms Perfume, Fragrance, etc. See smell, n.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or principle of plants or other substances which constitutes their fragrance; agreeable odor.
  • noun Fig.: The fine diffusive quality of intellectual power; flavor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A smell; especially a pleasant spicy or fragrant one.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any property detected by the olfactory system
  • noun a distinctive odor that is pleasant

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration (influenced by Latin arōma, spice) of Middle English aromat, aromatic substance, from Old French, from Latin arōmata, pl. of arōma, from Greek, aromatic herb.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin arōmata 'spices', from Ancient Greek ἄρωμα (arōma, "seasoning, spicy and/or fragrant smell").

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