• odour (British spelling)

From Middle English odour, borrowed from Anglo-Norman odour, from Old French odor, from Latin odor.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊdə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊdəɹ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Homophone: oater (some dialects)
• Rhymes: -əʊdə(ɹ)

odor (countable and uncountable, plural odors) (American spelling)

1. Any smell, whether fragrant or offensive.

   Synonyms: scent, perfume; see also Thesaurus:smell

   • 1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter X, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:

     Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odour of camphor was unmistakable.

   • 2024 November, “Chemical Decomposition, Fire, and Toxic Gas Release at Bio-Lab, Inc.”, in U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board‎^[1], archived from the original on 1 March 2025, page 2:

     Both chemicals are solid oxidizers in granular form and have a chlorine odor. […] Plant 12 also stored super sacks of bromochloro-5,5-dimethylimidazolidine-2,4-dione (BCDMH), which is a granular solid oxidizer with a halogen odor that, in addition to chlorine gas and hydrogen chloride, can also release bromine gas and hydrogen bromide upon decomposition.

   • 2024 November 24, Chris Boyette, “Investigators release update on BioLab chemical plant fire probe”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 30 August 2025:

     BioLab officials told the investigators they had established a permanent fire watch two or three months prior to the incident after strong odors from oxidizers in two storage buildings were detected, according to the CSB report. BioLab also told CSB two employees were on duty for fire watch on September 29.

2. (figuratively) A strong, pervasive quality.
   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 8, page 287:

     In different parts of the coast different species of animals are accounted sacred, because they are supposed to be animated by the spirits of the dead. Hence monkeys near Fishtown, snakes at Whydah, and crocodiles near Dix Cove live in the odour of sanctity."

3. (figuratively, uncountable) Esteem.

   Synonyms: esteem, repute

4. (now rare) Something which produces a scent; incense, a perfume.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt[…] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Luke xxiiij:[1], folio cxvii, recto:

     On the morowe after the ſaboth / erly in the mornynge / they cam vnto the toumbe and brought the odourſ whych they had prepared / and other wemen wyth them.

• The term odo(u)r often has a negative connotation. Preferred terms for a pleasant odor are fragrance, scent, and aroma.

• aroma

• door, oord, ordo, rood, Rood

From the same Proto-Uralic *omte as odú + -r (obsolete diminutive suffix).^[1][2]

• IPA^(key): [ˈodor]
• Rhymes: -or
• Hyphenation: odor
• Syllabification: o‧dor

odor (plural odorok or odrok)

1. (dialectal) hollow, cavity

   Synonym: üreg

2. (dialectal) the place for fodder in the barn
3. (geology) geode (a nodule of stone having a cavity)

   Synonym: üreges kőzet

4. (printing) matrix (the cavity or mold in which anything is formed)

or

• odú

• odor in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

• IPA^(key): /oˈdor/
• Rhymes: -or
• Hyphenation: o‧dór

odor m (apocopated)

1. apocopic form of odore

• d'oro, doro, dorò, ordo, rodo, rodo-, rodò

• odōs
• olor

Via rhotacism from Old Latin odōs (plural: odōses). The further etymology is slightly unclear. De Vaan suggests that it derives from Proto-Italic *odōs, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed-.^[1] The term may be compared to Old Armenian հոտ (hot), perhaps indicating that both forms derive from a neuter s-stem *h₃éd-os. Such a development would, however, require that the Latin term was originally neuter.^[2]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɔ.dɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɔː.dor]

odor m (genitive odōris); third declension

1. A smell, perfume, stench.
2. (figuratively) Inkling, suggestion.

Third-declension noun.

• odōrō
• odōror

• “odor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “odor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "odor", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “odor”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[3], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • with incense and perfumes: ture et odoribus incensis
    
  • the perfume exhaled by flowers: odores, qui efflantur e floribus
    
  • there are whispers of the appointment of a dictator: non nullus odor est dictaturae (Att. 4. 18)
    

From Latin odōrem.

odor

1. a smell

odor

1. alternative form of odour

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese odor (displacing collateral form olor), from Latin odōrem. Doublet of olor.

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -oʁ, (Portugal, São Paulo) -oɾ
• Hyphenation: o‧dor

odor m (plural odores)

1. odour; smell

   Synonyms: cheiro, aroma

• “odor”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “odor”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• odoare

Borrowed from French odeur, Latin odor.

odor f (plural odoruri)

1. smell

   Synonym: miros

• odora

Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian odor.

odor n (plural odoare)

1. treasure

• udor

From Latin odor, odōrem. Compare Italian odore.

odor m (plural odori) or odor m (plural oduri)

1. smell, stink

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