Word.ws English Dictionary

scent

/sɛnt/

scent noun: a distinctive smell.

Noun

scent (countable and uncountable, plural scents)

  1. A distinctive smell.
    • the scent of flowers / of a skunk
    • to give off / release / exude a scent
  2. A smell left by an animal that may be used for tracing.
    • The dogs picked up / caught the scent but then quickly lost it.
    • He […] twice to-day pick’d out the dullest scent; / Trust me, I take him for the better dog.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. The sense of smell.
    • I believe the bloodhound has the best scent of all dogs.
    • His houndes espyde him where he was, and Blacksoote first of all / And Stalker speciall good of sent began aloud to call.1567, Ovid, “The Third Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 33, recto
    Synonyms:
    olfaction
  4. (uncountable) A substance (usually liquid) created to provide a pleasant smell.
    • a scent shop
    • a scent bazaar
  5. (figuratively) Any trail or trace that can be followed to find something or someone, such as the paper left behind in a paperchase.
    • The minister's off-hand remark put journalists on the scent of a cover-up.
    • The tip put the detectives on a false scent / the wrong scent.
  6. (obsolete) Sense, perception.
    • A fit false dreame, that can delude the sleepers sent.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 15

Verb

scent (third-person singular simple present scents, present participle scenting, simple past and past participle scented)

  1. (transitive) To detect the scent of; to discern by the sense of smell.
    • The hounds scented the fox in the woods.
    • methinks I scent the morning air.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    Synonyms:
    smell
  2. (ambitransitive) To inhale in order to detect the scent of (something).
    • I paused to scent the breeze as I entered the valley.1899, W. E. B. Du Bois, “A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 83, page 103
    • One night he sprang from sleep with a start, eager-eyed, nostrils quivering and scenting,1903, Jack London, chapter 7, in The Call of the Wild, New York: Macmillan, page 201
    Synonyms:
    sniff, smell
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To have a suspicion of; to detect the possibility of (something).
    • I scented trouble when I saw them running down the hill towards me.
    • Cope seemed to scent a challenge and accepted it.1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 11, in Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: R.F. Seymour, page 105
  4. (transitive) To impart an odour to, to cause to have a particular smell.
    • Scent the air with burning sage before you begin your meditation.
    • Balm, from a Silver box distill’d around, / Shall all bedew the roots and scent the sacred ground;1685, John Dryden, “The Epithalamium of Helen and Menelaus”, in Sylvæ, or, The Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies, London: Jacob Tonson, page 105
    Synonyms:
    perfume, odorize
  5. (intransitive, obsolete) To have a smell; (figuratively) to give an impression (of something).
    • Thunderbolts & lightnings […] do sent strongly of brimstone:1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXV.] 15.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus....
    • I smell him now: fie, how the Knave perfumes him, / How strong he scents of Traitor?1647, John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, The False One, Act III, Scene 2, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies, London: John Martyn et al., p. 325
    Synonyms:
    smell
  6. To hunt animals by means of the sense of smell.

scent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

scent in Hindi

distinctive odour or smell
गंध gandh, महक mahak
perfume
परिमल parimal
odour left by animal
गंध gandh

scent in Tamil

வாசனை திரவியம்

scent in Marathi

सुगंध, सुगंधात

scent in Urdu

scent
عطر itr
More languagesFewer languages
scent in Bengali
গন্ধ gondho
scent in Telugu
సెంటు seṇṭu
scent in Malayalam
മണം, സുഗന്ധം, സൗഗന്ധം, സൗഗന്ധ്യം
scent in Kannada
ಸುವಾಸನೆ, ಸುಗಂಧ, ಪರಿಮಳ, ಕಂಪು
scent in Punjabi
ਸੁਗੰਧ, ਖੁਸ਼ਬੂ
scent in Gujarati
સુગંધ sugandh, અત્તર attar
scent in Odia
ସୁଗନ୍ଧ, ସୁଗନ୍ଧି
scent in Nepali
सुगन्ध
scent in Arabic
رَائِحَة rāʔiḥa, رَوَائِح rawāʔiḥ, أَرِيج ʔarīj
scent in Malay
bau
scent in Persian
عطر 'atr, طیب tib
scent in Thai
กลิ่น glìn
scent in Vietnamese
mùi

Examples of scent in a sentence

  • to breathe in / inhale a scent
  • to pick up a scent / get scent of something
  • to throw / put someone off the scent
  • hunger and thirst at once, / Powerful perswaders, quick’nd at the scent / Of that alluring fruit,1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by...
  • The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer,1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 49:
  • Behind me the forest stood wrapped in mist, its scents still sleeping.1973, Mary Stewart, The Hollow Hills, New York: William Morrow, Book 3, p. 357:

All 40 example sentences with scent

Synonyms of scent

9 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of scent

Forms of scent

Noun
pluralscents
alternative form (obsolete)sent
Verb
third-person singular presentscents
present participlescenting
past participlescented
pastscented

Past tense of scent: scented

Plural of scent: scents

Origin of scent

From Middle English sent (noun) and senten (verb), from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell, sense”), from Latin sentiō, sentīre (“to feel, sense”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”), and thus related to Saterland Frisian Sin (“sense”), West Frisian sin (“sense”), Dutch zin (“sense, meaning”), Low German Sinn (“sense”), Luxembourgish Sënn (“sense, perception”), German Sinn (“sense”). The -c- appeared in the 17th century, possibly by influence of ascent, descent, etc., or by influence of science.

Words formed from scent

Phrases with scent

Words that rhyme with scent

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scent

What does scent mean?
Scent means a distinctive smell.
What is scent in Hindi?
Scent in Hindi is गंध (gandh), महक (mahak), परिमल (parimal). See Scent meaning in Hindi.
How do you use scent in a sentence?
to breathe in / inhale a scent
What part of speech is scent?
Scent can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce scent?
Scent is pronounced /sɛnt/.
What is the plural of scent?
The plural of scent is scents.

Words near scent in the dictionary

  1. scenographs
  2. scenography
  3. scenopinid
  4. scenopinids
  5. scenopoetic
  6. scent
  7. scent gland
  8. scent glands
  9. scent hound
  10. scent hounds
  11. scent mark

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scent (page history and authors); scent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scent (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); عطر (Urdu) (page history and authors); సెంటు (Telugu) (page history and authors); scent (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); scent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scent (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); અત્તર (Gujarati) (page history and authors); scent (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scent (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scent.ogg.

Cite this entry: “scent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.