Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Making Sense Out of Scents

The human nose is an amazing organ. In a recent study, it was discovered that the human nose can distinguish a trillion different scents.  Just as there are a myriad of scents that the nose can pick up, there are many words in English used to describe scents or odors.

Here are some adjectives used to describe different scents or odors.

Adjectives for pleasant scents
a) fragrant
b) clean
c) sweet
d) aromatic
e) fresh

Adjectives used to describe unpleasant odors
a) pungent (sharp and strong)
b) acrid (bitter and unpleasant
c) stinky
d) smelly
e) putrid (like the smell of decaying material)
f) musty (a bad smell caused by wetness, old age or lack of fresh air)

Can you describe these objects using one of the adjectives from above?


Possible Answers

1. sweet
2. fresh
3. fragrant
4. clean
5. pungent
6. stinky
7. musty