Word.ws English Dictionary

bells and smells

bells and smells noun: a style of religious worship emphasising high ritual, including use of vestments, bells and incense, especially in high church Anglicanism and Catholicism.

Noun

bells and smells pl (plural only)

  1. (informal, plural, plural-only) A style of religious worship emphasising high ritual, including use of vestments, bells and incense, especially in high church Anglicanism and Catholicism.
    • We were a liberal Catholic bells-and-smells congregation with a strong but small worshipping core, plus frequent visitors, because of our geographical location and a professional choir in a beautiful Butterfield church.2017 June 2, Mike Lawlor, “Letters to the Editor”, in Church Times

Questions about bells and smells

What does bells and smells mean?
Bells and smells means a style of religious worship emphasising high ritual, including use of vestments, bells and incense, especially in high church Anglicanism and Catholicism.
What part of speech is bells and smells?
Bells and smells is a noun.

Words near bells and smells in the dictionary

  1. bellringing
  2. bellringings
  3. bellrope
  4. bellropes
  5. bells
  6. bells and smells
  7. bells and whistles
  8. Bells Beach
  9. bells of Ireland
  10. bells out
  11. bells the cat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bells and smells (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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