perfume
Americannoun
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perfumes
plural
-
a substance, extract, or preparation for diffusing or imparting an agreeable or attractive smell, especially a fluid containing fragrant natural oils extracted from flowers, woods, etc., or similar synthetic oils.
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the scent, odor, or volatile particles emitted by substances that smell agreeable.
- Antonyms:
- stench
verb (used with object)
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perfumes,
present (3rd person singular)
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perfumed,
past participle, past
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perfuming
present participle
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(of substances, flowers, etc.) to impart a pleasant fragrance to.
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to impregnate with a sweet odor; scent.
noun
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a mixture of alcohol and fragrant essential oils extracted from flowers, spices, etc, or made synthetically, used esp to impart a pleasant long-lasting scent to the body, stationery, etc See also cologne toilet water
-
a scent or odour, esp a fragrant one
verb
Synonym Usage
Perfume, aroma, fragrance all refer to agreeable odors. Perfume often indicates a strong, rich smell, natural or manufactured: the perfume of flowers. Fragrance is usually applied to fresh, delicate, and delicious odors, especially from growing things: fragrance of new-mown hay. Aroma is restricted to a somewhat spicy smell: the aroma of coffee.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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perfumesimple
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perfumessimple
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have perfumedperfect
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has perfumedperfect
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am perfumingprogressive
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are perfumingprogressive
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is perfumingprogressive
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have been perfumingperfect progressive
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has been perfumingperfect progressive
Past
-
perfumedsimple
-
had perfumedperfect
-
was perfumingprogressive
-
were perfumingprogressive
-
had been perfumingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of perfume
First recorded in 1525–35; earlier parfume (noun), from Middle French parfum, noun derivative of parfumer (verb), from obsolete Italian parfumare (modern profumare ). See per-, fume
Explanation
That delicious mid-summer smell in the middle of a rose garden? You can call that its perfume. If you apply scented oil to your neck and wrists before leaving your house every the morning, you know what perfume is. Another kind of perfume is one that doesn't come in a bottle, like the smell of your mom's cinnamon rolls or the salty fragrance of the ocean after a storm. The earliest use of perfume in English specifically meant "the smell of something burning," and the Latin root is smoky as well: fumare means "to smoke" and per means "through."
Vocabulary lists containing perfume
The Nose Knows: Olfactory Vocabulary
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Smell Words
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Unit 16
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Please don’t make your cars smell like a perfume store,” a rider on X said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Yes, they do, for perfume and for investing.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
The Willy Chavarria show was air-conditioned, pumped with Xinú perfume and felt expensive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
He also said that their two children reminded him of "the best" of Michelle and that they "ask for her perfume so they can still smell her".
From BBC ● May 20, 2026
I caught a whiff of her fading lavender perfume and the fried rice from dinner.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Dubbed "a couturier of the sacred" by Vogue magazine, Sorcinelli has seen his business expand over the years, now encompassing perfumes and body products for the general public.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
The oil perfumes the whole pan with garlic and tomato while adding a subtle richness to the eggs themselves.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
The New York-based business makes a variety of products, ranging from scents for perfumes to ingredients used in food that can help digestion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
The vouchers were reportedly intended as raffle prizes and gifts to volunteers, but Joell-Deshields spent them on luxury perfumes and Apple products, the directors said.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
Servants wheel in tiered trays bursting with skin-color pastilles and rouge pots, brushes and combs and barrel irons, tonics and creams, bei-powder bundles, waxes and perfumes, measuring rods and metal instruments, and sharpened kohl pencils.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
But when we spoke about his second solo album, “Acomodo,” the Nayarit-born, Sinaloa-raised singer, whose real name is Jesús Roberto Laija García, arrived polished, perfumed and poised.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
Perhaps the book’s greatest feat is its depiction of the historical moment when the modern overpowered the ancient—a world, now lost, of floridly costumed courtiers, fabled princes, exotic vices and perfumed palaces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
The smell of sewage lightly perfumed the air.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2025
Outside the clinic, in a "Koala Rehab Centre" faintly perfumed by eucalyptus leaves, is a three-year-old recovering from a hysterectomy.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2024
She doubles forward and hugs me, squishing me against her perfumed self.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
Its paprika and gentle heat bloom in the oven, perfuming everything around it.
From Salon ● Mar. 23, 2026
Thick smoke of burning incense penetrates the room, perfuming everything sacred.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2023
When one skater went airborne for a tailslide, scraping the Pulaski stonework with the edge of his deck, Fuchs pointed an index finger upward as if the sound were perfuming the air.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2022
There were plenty of barbecue spots established in the 1940s and ’50s, perfuming the streets with smoke.
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2022
They would arrive earlier than the others and spend the morning shaving him, giving him massages with hot towels, cutting and polishing the nails on his hands and feet, and perfuming him with toilet water.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
