Scented

How to spell scented

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce scented

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does scented mean?

1. adjectiveHaving or carrying a noticeable, usually pleasant, smell.
2. verbDetected or tracked something by its smell, or filled something with a fragrance.

Scented in a sentence

• adjective

  She lit a scented candle to mask the smell of fresh paint.

• verb

  The hound scented the fox and bolted across the field.

• adjective

  The hotel left a scented soap on the edge of the bath.

• verb

  The perfumer scented the oil with crushed jasmine petals.

Where does scented come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows from the verb 'scent', which English took from the Old French 'sentir', meaning 'to feel, perceive, or smell'. That French verb came directly from the Latin 'sentire', meaning 'to feel or perceive', the same root that gave us 'sense', 'sentiment', and 'sentinel'. When the word arrived in English in the 1300s it was spelled 'sent', exactly as it sounded; the silent 'c' was not part of the original at all. Writers of the 1500s and 1600s added the 'c' under the mistaken influence of Latin spellings like 'scientia', and that decorative letter simply stuck. This is the heart of the spelling trap: the 'c' is purely historical and does nothing for the pronunciation, which is why 'scented' is so easily confused with the unrelated words 'sented' and 'cented'.

How the word is built

• scent (smell, perceive by smell)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)