Odorless

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈəʊdələs/

Definitions

1. Having a quality that does not emit any scent or fragrance at all
2. Characterized by the complete absence of any detectable smell, making it unnoticeable by olfactory senses
3. Not producing any scent or aroma that can be detected by the nose

Etymology: "Odorless" is a straightforward formation: the Latin noun "odor" (smell) combined with the English suffix "-less," meaning "without." The suffix has deep roots in English. It descends from Old English "-lēas," which meant "free from" or "lacking," and it was a productive ending that could be attached to almost any noun to describe the absence of that thing. Words like "careless," "homeless," and "endless" follow the same pattern. The Latin "odor" itself traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root *lewh₁-, which is linked to the idea of smelling or emitting a scent. That root passed into Germanic languages, where it gave rise to the Old English and Middle English family of words for smell, and the English word "odor" was borrowed directly from Latin. So "odorless" joins an old Germanic suffix to a classical Latin stem, one of many hybrid formations in English.

Synonyms: fragrantless, unscented, neutral-smelling, without odor, inodorous

Antonyms: fragrant, smelly, scented, aromatic, odorous