olfactory
Meaning of olfactory: Olfactory describes the structures and nerve pathways responsible for detecting and processing smell, from the nasal lining to the brain.
Definition of olfactory
Olfactory means relating to the sense of smell. The word describes the anatomical structures involved in detecting odors, including the olfactory epithelium, a specialized tissue lining part of the nasal cavity, and the olfactory nerve, which carries smell information from the nose to the brain.
Olfactory function can be affected by nasal congestion, infection, head injury, aging, and certain neurologic conditions, and a change in olfactory function is sometimes an early finding in some of these conditions. Olfactory testing can be used to assess how well a person detects and identifies different smells.
Because smell contributes heavily to the perception of flavor, a change in olfactory function often affects how food and drink are experienced, even when the sense of taste itself is unaffected.
Used in a sentence
Olfactory testing was performed after the patient reported a persistent change in the sense of smell.
Good to know
Olfactory testing can distinguish a general reduction in the sense of smell, called hyposmia, from a complete loss, called anosmia, though both differ from a distorted sense of smell known as parosmia.
Word origin
Where “olfactory” comes from
From Latin olfacere, meaning "to smell," formed from olere ("to smell") and facere ("to make").