fragrance

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French fragrance, from Latin fragrantia. See fragrant.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: frāʹ-grəns, IPA(key): /ˈfɹeɪɡɹəns/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

fragrance (countable and uncountable, plural fragrances)

  1. A pleasant smell or odour.
    Synonym: aroma
    • 2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better[1], Plum, →ISBN, page 192:
      You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.
  2. A perfume.
    • 1987 October, Timothy Kalich, “Marketing: What's in a Smell?”, in The Atlantic[2], →ISSN:
      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.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

fragrance (third-person singular simple present fragrances, present participle fragrancing, simple past and past participle fragranced)

  1. (transitive) To apply a fragrance to; to perfume.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin fragrantia, from fragrō, fragrāre. Related to flairer, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /fʁa.ɡʁɑ̃s/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

fragrance f (plural fragrances)

  1. a fragrance, a pleasurable smell

Further reading