Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The sense of smell.
- n. The act or process of smelling.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The sense of smell or faculty of smelling; an olfactory act or process; smell; scent.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Physiol.) The sense by which the impressions made on the olfactory organs by the odorous particles in the atmosphere are perceived.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the faculty that enables us to distinguish scents
Etymologies
- From Latin olfactus. (Wiktionary)
- Latin olfactus, past participle of olfacere, to smell; see olfactory + -ion. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Research on smell - what scientists call olfaction - is discussed in the December issue of the Reader's Digest magazine in an article by Paula Dranov.”
“You got me thinking about how I sometimes play up my interest in "olfaction" and the "psychology of scent" or relate it to my former life in specialty coffee using sensory evaluation everyday when speaking of this hobby with others.”
“Of course in the wine industry, we often start enjoying the wine via olfaction … mmmmmm.”
“In women, the olfaction sense is strongest around ovulation.”
Homage to Olfaction « California Life: Better Than Happy Hour
“Vaporized oyster olfaction delivery systems are on the edge of really breaking out …”
“Of the big five, olfaction is the one identified most strongly with memory.”
“Chewing begins, releasing more flavors, and as the food slides down the throat olfaction contributes further to”
“But the nature of a moment—the experience of moments—is different when olfaction is your primary sense.”
“For dogs, perspective, scale, and distance are, after a fashion, in olfaction—but olfaction is fleeting: it exists in a different time scale.”
“In this way, olfaction is also a manipulator of time, for time is changed when represented by a succession of odors.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘olfaction’.
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A Rarefaction of Factoids
List of genuine words and phrases containing the string fact-, -fact-, or -fact. Beginning with ventifact and stupefaction.
ventifact, stupefaction, fact, factoid, rarefaction, unsatisfactory, satisfactory, tumefaction, surfactant, artifact, benefactor, benefaction and 142 more...
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• Senses
They told you they're five.
sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, proprioception, balance, temperature, parking, rhythm, business, snow and 68 more...
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The Nose Knows
Being Nosy.
nosethril, nostril, nebby, nasal, rhinoplasty, pug, button, Roman, turned-up, Pinocchio, Cyrano de Bergerac, Gonzo and 54 more...
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Words of the Times
Words discovered while reading The New York Times, each with a citation from the paper.
testilying, ghost talk, apneist, solastalgia, izakaya, hooker, telectroscope, airflyte, phomance, bromhidrosis, stinky feet, cupping and 482 more...
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The Five? Senses
sight, vision, hearing, audition, taste, gustation, smell, olfaction, touch, tactition, mechanoreception, stereopsis and 17 more...
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Stench
Smelly words
putrefaction, putrid, fetid, fetor, rancid, rank, noxious, acrid, pungent, piquant, stench, mildew and 18 more...
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Compilation of the Best Words Ever
A list of words I've compiled that I hope to use in works of writing.
cynicism, amble, ubiquitous, cantankerous, nefarious, melodramatic, fugacious, ephemeral, antithesis, sycophant, equivocal, unequivocal and 63 more...
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words i think are funny
i love unique and funny words so anything here amuses me or i think is cool
scaud, squint, olfaction, squally, polliwog, barghest, jubilee, snarky, nosh, kerfuffle
Tweets
Looking for tweets for olfaction.
bilby Very unsal. Aug 21, 2011
soccer girl i love this word its so unsal and unique i didnt know there was another word for smell! Aug 21, 2011
Prolagus Is it such an unusual word, that only 2 Wordies list it? (Three, now) Jun 20, 2009
john "At the International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste held in San Francisco late last month, Dr. Herz and other researchers discussed the many ways our sense of smell stands alone. Olfaction is an ancient sense, the key by which our earliest forebears learned to approach or slink off. Yet the right aroma can evoke such vivid, whole body sensations that we feel life’s permanent newness, the grounding of now."
The New York Times, The Nose, an Emotional Time Machine, by Natalie Angier, August 5, 2008 Aug 5, 2008