smelled

verb

variants or chiefly British smelt
past tense of smell
1
as in sniffed
to become aware of by means of the sense organs in the nose we smelled the aroma of freshly baked cookies as soon as we walked in the house

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance
2
as in sensed
to have a vague awareness of I smell something fishy about this situation

Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in sucked
to be objectionable or unsatisfactory that movie smells—I wouldn't waste my money on it if I were you

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of smelled In my early memories, my grandfather had smelled like carpet cleaner. — Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2026 For Dylan Feierabend, there are few things more life-affirming than fishing for redtail surfperch and smelt at Centerville Beach in rural Humboldt County. — Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2026 Rather than projecting for others, these more subtle scents are meant to be smelled only by you and others who are lucky enough to get close. — Helen Carefoot, Flow Space, 28 Sep. 2026 To a novice taster, sipping out of a plastic Mets carafe, the wine smelled like dry grass and very ripe blackberries. — Arthur Holland Michel, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2026 Cozzi’s colleague eventually checked the office bathroom, which overwhelmingly smelled of cleaning products and alcohol. — Lauren Del Valle, CNN Money, 23 Sep. 2026 To be loved is to be smelled, at least according to the manosphere. — Devika Rao, TheWeek, 22 Sep. 2026 Aryna Sabalenka stopped a match because, apparently, the stadium smelled more like weed than your neighbor’s van with the Dio album cover airbrushed on the side. — Matt Reigle Outkick, FOXNews.com, 4 Sep. 2026 Officers initially smelled the odor of unburnt cannabis during the stop, according to police, and Mark Stephens handed them an open container of weed. — Finnegan Belleau, Chicago Tribune, 24 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for smelled
  1. sniffed
  2. sensed
  3. sucked
  4. inhaled
  5. felt
  6. saw
  7. heard
  8. noticed
Verb
  • In the late 1950s, Johnny and Vivian Cash, his first wife, along with their three daughters, moved from Memphis, Tennessee to California as the fabled singer sniffed out a potential career in Hollywood, like his contemporary Elvis Presley.
    — David G. Allan, CNN Money, 22 Sep. 2026
  • When The Associated Press visited Sunday, Tigrino cautiously emerged from his shelter, sniffed the air and paced around for a few minutes before slipping back into the foliage.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of sniffed
Verb
  • At Lincoln Bay, Duke said their elevators sensed water and immediately went to the 10th floor, where they were locked in place and unusable until contractors cleared out the pit below.
    — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Trump’s blunt talk and status as a celebrity businessman initially helped him around Dayton, where voters sensed that politics as usual had failed them.
    — Josh Boak, Chicago Tribune, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of sensed
Verb
  • Look, these schools and teams sucked the fun out of sports with their BLM rallies on Instagram and lectures on Facebook and in the media.
    — Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 6 Oct. 2026
  • The authors posit that people from that period sucked on betel nuts to relieve tooth pain, given that these populations are known to have had bad teeth and arecoline is a natural analgesic.
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of sucked
Verb
  • The chemical is highly corrosive, toxic when inhaled or touched, and flammable under specific concentrations.
    — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 2 Oct. 2026
  • The poorer the air being inhaled by children in Hackney, the more regularly the dust was agitated and the thicker the storm and richer the color inside the box.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of inhaled
Verb
  • The rooms are beautifully laid out and share the peacefulness felt throughout the property.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Our target consumer is anyone who is tired of endless scrolling, has ever felt that conventional recommendations don’t quite understand them, or finds today’s personalization systems too opaque or even a little creepy.
    — Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of felt
Verb
  • In the book, Covey tells the story of a man relentlessly sawing down a tree.
    — Tony Gambill, Forbes.com, 2 June 2026
  • Jordan Walker, sawed off by a 96 mph sinker, lined out softly.
    — Matt Kawahara, Houston Chronicle, 19 Apr. 2026
Definition of saw
Verb
  • But moments before the nosedive, passengers seated near the front of the plane heard sounds of a fight inside the cockpit, said passenger Daniel Schlichter, who was seated in the second row.
    — SAM MEDNICK, Arkansas Online, 3 Oct. 2026
  • Eventually the curtain was closed again and the microphone in the room was turned off, but Pike could still be heard making gasping or snoring sounds.
    — Rebecca Boone, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of heard
Verb
  • This was already noticed long before the emergence of AI chatbots with the power to converse.
    — Pascal Vrticka, Scientific American, 4 Oct. 2026
  • The man’s collarbones no longer cast deep shadows at the base of his neck, Shawn noticed.
    — Rachel Heng, New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2026
Definition of noticed

Browse Nearby Words

smell
smelled
smelled (of)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Smelled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/smelled. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.

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