Meaning & use

B.O.

abbreviation·Everyday

An informal short form of 'body odor,' the unpleasant smell caused by sweat on the skin.

See it in a sentence

He kept a spare shirt at work just in case he got B.O. after his lunchtime run.

The gym locker room always smelled faintly of B.O. by the end of the day.

A note on using this word

B.O. is casual and mildly humorous slang, mainly used in spoken conversation rather than formal or medical writing.

Words with a similar meaning

body odor

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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