Why Are Smells So Hard to Describe?

Smells are hard to describe mainly because many languages, including English, have very few words for smells themselves. We have abstract words for colours — red, blue — but for smells we usually borrow the name of a source ("smells like lemon", "like a bakery") or say whether we like it ("lovely", "awful"). Research suggests this is partly cultural, not only biological: speakers of some languages, such as Jahai in the Malay Peninsula, name smells about as easily as colours. For perfume wearers, the practical answer is to build a vocabulary — of families, notes and textures — and to practise using it.

How we usually describe smells

Listen to anyone describing a perfume and you will hear three kinds of words:

Sources — "it smells of rose, cut grass, clean laundry".
Feelings and judgements — "warm", "fresh", "cosy", "too sweet".
Borrowed senses — "bright", "soft", "sharp", "heavy", "round".

Words that name a smell quality in itself, as "red" names a colour, are rare in English. "Musty" and "fragrant" come close, but there are few of them. This is why perfume language relies so heavily on metaphor and on lists of notes. See Top, Heart and Base Notes.

The "tip-of-the-nose" feeling

Most people know the frustration of recognising a smell without being able to name it — a familiar spice in a dish, a perfume worn by someone you know. Researchers call this the tip-of-the-nose state. We recognise far more smells than we can name, and naming improves greatly when we are given a clue or a list.

We know far more smells than we have words for. The gap is in the vocabulary, not the nose.

What other languages show

In a study published in 2014, the linguists Asifa Majid and Niclas Burenhult compared speakers of Jahai, a language of hunter-gatherers in the Malay Peninsula, with speakers of English. Jahai has a set of abstract words for smell qualities. Asked to name smells and colours, Jahai speakers named smells about as easily and consistently as colours, using those abstract words; English speakers found smells much harder, gave long, varied descriptions, and mostly described sources. The authors concluded that the difficulty of naming smells is not simply a limit of the human brain, but depends partly on language and culture. Later research has found other languages with rich smell vocabularies.

Why smell and language seem distant

Some researchers have suggested that the way smell is connected in the brain — with strong, direct links to emotion and memory — may make it feel less tied to words than vision. Others emphasise practice: cultures and professions that talk about smells often get better at it. Both may be true. See How Does Smell Work? and Why Smells Trigger Memories.

People who describe smells for a living

Perfumers, flavourists, wine tasters and coffee tasters learn to describe smells precisely. They do it by smelling many materials repeatedly and naming them, building shared vocabularies and reference points. This is training of attention and language as much as of the nose. See What Does a Perfumer Do?.

How to describe a perfume better

Use families as a start — floral, woody, amber, fresh, gourmand. See Fragrance Families Explained.
Name the notes you can actually smell, not the whole list on the box.
Add texture words — powdery, creamy, clean, earthy, mineral, boozy. See What Does Powdery Mean in Perfume? and What Does Earthy Mean in Perfume?.
Say how it changes — bright at first, warm later.
Compare with perfumes or everyday smells others know.
Practise. Smell ingredients in your kitchen and garden, and name them aloud.

A good description helps when you are asking for recommendations or looking for perfumes like one you love. See How to Find Perfumes Similar to One You Love.

Common questions

Why can’t I describe what a perfume smells like?

Most languages have few words for smells, so we fall back on sources and feelings. Learning families, notes and texture words helps.

Is it possible to get better at describing smells?

Yes. Smelling and naming things regularly builds vocabulary and attention, as perfumers and wine tasters show.

Do some languages have more words for smells?

Yes. Research on languages such as Jahai has found sets of abstract smell words that speakers use easily.

Why do people describe perfumes with colours or textures?

Because smell vocabulary is limited, we borrow from other senses: "bright", "soft", "dark", "creamy".

Sources

A. Majid and N. Burenhult, "Odors are expressible in language, as long as you speak the right language", Cognition 130 (2), 266–270 (2014).