underscent
underscent noun: a scent that is perceptible but less prominent than other scents in a particular environment.
Noun
underscent (plural underscents)
- A scent that is perceptible but less prominent than other scents in a particular environment.
- The under-scent of hidden violets among moss flowed potently upon the quiet air, mingled with strong pine-odours and the salt breath of the gently heaving sea,1902, Marie Corelli, “Temporal Power”: A Study in Supremacy, London: Methuen, Chapter 18, p. 256
- […] below her perfume lingered another perfume, more elusive, more aggressive, a man’s scent. Still staring into her eyes, he deliberately blanked his mind three times; and each time the first picture triggered in his mind by that underscent was the face of Billy Merganser.1968, M. K. Joseph, chapter 4, in The Hole in the Zero,, New York: Dutton, page 67
Forms of underscent
| plural | underscents |
|---|
Origin of underscent
From under- + scent.
Questions about underscent
- What does underscent mean?
- Underscent means a scent that is perceptible but less prominent than other scents in a particular environment.
- What part of speech is underscent?
- Underscent is a noun.
- What is the plural of underscent?
- The plural of underscent is underscents.
Words near underscent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: underscent (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underscent.wav.
Cite this entry: “underscent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/underscent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.