fragrance means A pleasant smell or odour.
fragrance is pronounced /ˈfɹeɪɡɹən(t)s/.
Why “fragrance” is a great word
A sweet or pleasant smell, especially that of flowers or other growing things. From French fragrance, from Late Latin frāgrantia ("sweetness of smell"), from the stem of Latin frāgrāns ("sweet-smelling"), first recorded in English in the 1660s. Unlike "odor" (a neutral term for any scent) or "stench" (its foul antagonist), fragrance is an emissary of delight. It is the sudden lift of jasmine on a humid evening, the faint persistence of linen dried in sun and wind, or the particular melancholy of a rose cut and brought indoors—beauty made airborne, a ghost of sweetness that reminds us how deeply the world is woven with small, fleeting consolations.
Etymology
Borrowed from French fragrance, from Middle French fragrance, from Old French fraglance, from Late Latin frāgrantia. See fragrant.
noun
- A pleasant smell or odour.
- A perfume.e.g.“Today, sales of women's fragrances are double those of men's, and 80 percent of all men's after-shaves and colognes are in fact bought by women, as gifts.” — 1987 October, Timothy Kalich, “Marketing: What's in a Smell?”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:
verb
- To apply a fragrance to; to perfume.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.