Meaning & use
odour
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountableBritishformal
A smell, especially a strong or unpleasant one that you notice in a room or on a person.
Grammar: Countable for a particular smell: a faint odour. Uncountable when speaking generally: body odour. American spelling is odor.
Patterns
- an odour of something
- the odour of something
A strange odour came from the cupboard under the sink.
The odour of fresh paint filled the hallway.
There was a faint odour of smoke in the corridor.
nounidiomfigurativeold-fashioned
The general feeling or reputation that surrounds someone or something, usually a bad one, in the phrase in bad odour.
Grammar: Fixed phrase: in bad odour means out of favor.
Patterns
- in bad odour
- in good odour
After the scandal, the minister was in bad odour with the party.
The company has been in bad odour since the recall.
Word forms
| plural | odours |
|---|
Common combinations
- unpleasant odour
- An unpleasant odour came from the bins.
- body odour
- Many people use deodorant to prevent body odour.
- faint odour
- A faint odour of gas made us open the windows.
- remove odours
- Baking soda can help remove odours from the fridge.
- pungent odour
- A pungent odour hung over the fish market.
- in bad odour
- He was in bad odour with his manager.
Synonyms and how they differ
- smell
- Smell is the ordinary word and can be pleasant or unpleasant, whereas odour is more formal and usually points to a bad or strong smell.
- scent
- Scent usually suggests a pleasant or light smell, such as flowers or perfume, which odour rarely does.
- stench
- Stench is much stronger than odour and means a disgusting, overpowering smell.
- aroma
- Aroma suggests an appealing smell, especially from food or drink, so it is positive where odour is not.
Word family
- odorous adjective
- having a noticeable smell
- odourless adjective
- having no smell
- deodorant noun
- a product that prevents or hides body smells
- malodorous adjective
- having a bad smell
- deodorize verb
- to remove or hide a smell
Commonly confused: odour or odor? odour or order?
odour vs odor
Odor is the American spelling of the same word, so the two are not different words, only different spellings.
odour vs order
Order sounds similar in fast speech, but it means arrangement or a command, not a smell.
Practice
We opened the windows to get rid of the lingering ___ of fried fish.
Choose one answer.
Odour means a smell, which is what lingers in a room after cooking. Flavour is a taste, and texture and colour cannot be got rid of by opening windows.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “odour”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.