smell, stink, scent

These nouns refer to the qualities and properties of objects and items that can be detected through the olfactory organs, or what is generally called the sense of smell. Smell, along with odor, is the most general, most commonly used, and most neutral of these words. A smell can be pleasant or unpleasant, but usually the word carries no particular connotation, favorable or unfavorable. Stink and its companion word stench always refer to disagreeable and unpleasant odors, especially those resulting from the decomposition of organic matter, such as the dead bodies of animals. Scent applies to a distinctive odor, usually delicate and usually connected directly with physical qualities of the item or object itself. Thus one would refer to the smell of wet grass, the stink of a dead body, and the scent of roses. As verbs, scent has principal parts of scent, scented, scented; stink, of stink, stank, stunk; smell, of smell, smelled (or smelt), smelled (or smelt). Words related to this trio of terms are aroma, fragrance, stench, perfume, savor, bouquet, exhalation, and redolence.