Lexical-olfactory synesthesia

This is a type of synesthesia where words (heard, spoken, read or simply thought about) trigger a concurrent of smell. Each word, or family of words, has its own specific aroma, and the smells are consistently perceived. Some people have smell concurrents for a large number of words, although others only have them for a limited amount.

Lexical-olfactory synesthesia appears to be much less common than its taste equivalent, lexical-gustatory synesthesia. Sean Day's study of prevalence suggests that the latter is almost five times as common (2.89% of the synesthetes questioned reported having word-taste perceptions as compared to only 0.61% for word-smell). People who have lexical-olfactory synesthesia also tend to have lexical-gustatory, i.e. the two types coexist. Sometimes the synesthete is not even sure whether the perception triggered by the words is actually a taste or a smell, this being a confusion that often affects synesthetes with both taste and smell-related types. However, few accounts or descriptive studies can be found on lexical-olfactory synesthesia.

If the smell sensations are in response to letters rather than whole words, this would be a case of a very uncommon type of synesthesia called grapheme-smell synesthesia. 

 

Here are some descriptions written by people with this type of synesthesia:

This first person has both lexical-gustatory and lexical-olfactory synesthesia, and while most words produce a taste sensation for them their smell concurrents seem to be rather more limited to the "interesting" words that define a particular concept they have had to learn at some time, and other, shorter, words such as pronouns or prepositions smell of nothing at all:

"Words like it, then, like, has, etc don't have smells, but I smell words with definitions or concepts like: Philia (floral), Eros (warm aromatic like cinnamon), philautia (those lipglosses that smell kind of like coffee), mandala (floral, and sand), etc. (...)

I can taste them as well, it really depends on the words though. Some have more scent than taste, and vice versa, but most have taste for me since that's my strongest type."

(Source: This comment on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2020.)

For this second lexical-olfactory synesthete, proper nouns (i.e. people's names) are a strong trigger, as is often the case in types of synesthesia with words as an inducer. For example, the name Sara gives them "the vibe of a gas station". They have difficulty describing some of the smells as they are not strong whiffs of known substances but are usually quite subtle, and not always the same as odours that they would normally perceive in their day-to-day life. Their account is also interesting in that masculine and feminine names tend to smell different, and that some of their triggers are certain series of abstract concepts that tend to be common synesthesia inducers: time units (months) and school subjects. This would suggest that their case is clearly also a manifestation of concept-smell and not only lexical-olfactory synesthesia, and it could probably be attributed to either category or perhaps even just be considered the former and not the latter.

"I always knew something was up with me when I was younger and started smelling things when thinking of words and names. (…)

They happen to be very faint usually. I usually smell concepts more than actual things and then it’s up to me to try and describe them based on things I’ve smelled before if I want to explain it to other people. (…)

The names Shonda and Shanda smell way different but the names Alexandra and Kae smell the same. (…) The name Brooke smells very sour, like if i snorted malic acid so not good, but it’s not to the point where I have to avoid saying or reading it, just enough to crinkle my nose a bit. The name Lily is sweet, and there’s varying types of sweetness associated with different names. Feminine names are usually sweet and masculine names are huskier but not always. Words that represent concepts or “concept-heavy” things (like months and subjects) smell more distinct."

(Source: This post and comments on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2025.)

The following description is written by someone who has just realised that words have smells, although their description is so detailed and precise that it seems they genuinely do have lexical-olfactory synesthesia:

"I'm noticing that when I repeat a word, I start smelling food items. I only smell them, I cannot taste words. Here are some examples: xylophone smells like BBQ Ribs, fortunate smells like cheese, compare smells like wine, wolverine smells like lumber, surrender smells like steamed veggies, synesthesia smells like boiled potatoes (no toppings), knowledge smells like cherries and example(s) smells like slightly old fish."

(Source: This post on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2020.)

They say that they hadn’t noticed it any earlier in life, so it would have to be established whether they continue receiving these impressions, how long they lasted and if they perceive them more frequently now that they have become aware of them. However, in general, the types of synesthesia with an olfactory concurrent have the peculiarity that for some synesthetes they tend to “come and go” rather than being constantly present, even though they are perfectly consistent with regard to their inducer and concurrent. This might be one of the reasons why so few people mention that they have this type and why it might be difficult for them to describe.

Here are some related synesthesia types you might be interested in reading about: 

Lexical-gustatory synesthesia (word-taste)

Auditory-olfactory synesthesia (sound/music-smell)

Concept-smell synesthesia (for series or sequences of concepts)

Grapheme-smell synesthesia (letters/numbers-smell)

This page last updated: 25 May 2026