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redolent

UK/ˈrɛdəʊlənt/US/ˈɹɛd.ə.lənt/
adjectiveC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Redolent means strongly smelling of something, or bringing it to mind. Redolent of pine, redolent of the 1950s, redolent with spices.

The figurative sense is now the commoner, and something redolent of an era calls it up rather than smells of it. It always takes of, and the Latin means giving off a scent.

Definitions of redolent

  1. 1adjectiveredolentStrongly smelling of something, or bringing it to mind.C2

    “The kitchen was redolent of garlic and fresh bread.”

redolent is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin redolens comes from redolere, to give off a smell, from re- plus olere, to smell.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₃ed- (smell)

  2. Latin

    redolentem

  3. Old French

    redolent

  4. Middle English

    redolent

  5. English, today

    redolent

Built from

  • redoleō · Latin — to emit a scent
  • oleō · Latin — to smell

From Middle English redolent (first attested in 1400), from Old French redolent, from Latin redolentem, present participle of redoleō (“to emit a scent”), from red- + oleō (“to smell”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

redolent in the wild

  • Nature mirrors the poet's inner thoughts and emotions which begin as redolent and vibrant but turn barren and desolate.

    Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude

  • Thompson referred to Mam (ii) as the evil Mam, an unfelicitous term redolent of Judaeo-Christian dichotomies.

    Mam (Maya mythology)

  • The music combines features that are redolent of both the Viennese classical style and Russian romantic nationalism.

    Harp Concerto (Glière)

  • The title also references the band's early single "Queer", and the promotional poster is redolent of the self-titled album's pink feather artwork.

    20 Years Queer

  • The title also references the album's second single "I Think I'm Paranoid", and the promotional poster is redolent of the album's orange jacket artwork.

    20 Years Paranoid

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.