odoriferous
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does odoriferous mean? Odoriferous means having a strong smell. Describing something as odoriferous doesn’t always mean it smells bad, but it usually does. The same thing goes for its close synonym odorous. Both are based on the word odor, meaning a smell. Example: After gym class, the locker room turns into an odoriferous chamber of sweat and smelly socks.
Other Word Forms
- nonodoriferous adjective
- nonodoriferously adverb
- nonodoriferousness noun
- odoriferosity noun
- odoriferously adverb
- odoriferousness noun
- unodoriferous adjective
- unodoriferously adverb
- unodoriferousness noun
Etymology
Origin of odoriferous
1425–75; late Middle English, from Medieval Latin odōriferus “smelling of (something),” equivalent to odōr- odor + -i- -i- + -ferus -ferous
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.
All this odoriferous research has convinced some scientists that DMS is intimately associated with life, making it an ideal biosignature if found hundreds of light years away on some lonely planet.
From Salon • May 31, 2025
Letting it decompose there would have created a monthslong unbearable odoriferous situation for nearby residents.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 5, 2023
“We had to find another solution for the Parisian market, which is the biggest,” said Demond, slicing open the packing tape on a Styrofoam box of durian, the odoriferous East Asian fruit.
From Slate • Mar. 30, 2023
Dogs become extensions of ourselves, with their acute hearing and especially keen noses expanding our field of perception from the visual world to the odoriferous.
From Washington Post • Dec. 17, 2020
Or, truth tolt, they don’t get upset by being odoriferous their own selfs.
From "The Journey of Little Charlie" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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.
