olfactory
of or relating to the sense of smell: olfactory organs.
Origin of olfactory
1Other words from olfactory
- ol·fac·to·ri·ly, adverb
- non·ol·fac·to·ry, adjective, noun, plural non·ol·fac·to·ries.
Words Nearby olfactory
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use olfactory in a sentence
The brain, drawing on memory, recognizes patterns in the chemical composition of the olfactory stimulus.
Our Mind-Boggling Sense of Smell - Issue 91: The Amazing Brain | Ann-Sophie Barwich | October 14, 2020 | NautilusAs I explain in the episode, the olfactory explanation doesn’t actually pass the sniff test—which led me to wonder why a particular vehicle might experience widespread yellow sac infestations.
While linearity doesn’t mean the olfactory code is easily solvable, it does provide a framework for neuroscientists to further work on and potentially more easily understand.
A Highway to Smell: How Scientists Used Light to Incept Smell in Mice | Shelly Fan | July 1, 2020 | Singularity HubNeuroscientist Dima Rinberg of New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and colleagues targeted nerve cells in mice’s olfactory bulbs.
How to make a mouse smell a smell that doesn’t actually exist | Laura Sanders | June 18, 2020 | Science NewsThat’s because, as far as neurons go, olfactory receptor neurons are unusual — they live outside of the brain, but keep one foot inside it.
The way the coronavirus messes with smell hints at how it affects the brain | Laura Sanders | June 12, 2020 | Science News
olfactory art, Burr admits, has been “completely and aggressively and successfully colonized by commercial interests.”
And then there are all the “olfactory landmarks” that live with us day to day, in laundry soaps and baby powder and new cars.
Our olfactory systems have long regarded pungency as not just innocuous but in fact pleasing.
It was now acting and re-acting on the lining of the serenader's olfactory organ in a manner to threaten final decapitation.
Flamsted quarries | Mary E. WallerSome collectors, with indifferent olfactory sense, moisten the cork of their boxes with creosote.
Directions for Collecting and Preserving Insects | C. V. RileyThis may perhaps be called the olfactory nerve, though clearly of a different character to the other nerves.
The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 | Francis Maitland BalfourThe anterior and larger division of the fore-brain forms the rudiment of the cerebral hemispheres and olfactory lobes.
The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 | Francis Maitland BalfourOn the ventral face of the integument covering these are two oval depressions, the rudimentary olfactory sacs.
The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 | Francis Maitland Balfour
British Dictionary definitions for olfactory
/ (ɒlˈfæktərɪ, -trɪ) /
of or relating to the sense of smell
(usually plural) an organ or nerve concerned with the sense of smell
Origin of olfactory
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for olfactory
[ ŏl-făk′tə-rē, ōl- ]
Relating to or involving the organs or sense of smell.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for olfactory
[ (ol-fak-tuh-ree, ohl-fak-tuh-ree) ]
A descriptive term for the sense of smell.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Browse