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geosmin.

Noun
Technical
MEANING

A naturally produced organic compound with a distinctive earthy odor, associated with some microbes and environmental smells.

Use it for

an earthy odor traced to a compound; soil or water smell described chemically; a contributor distinguished from the whole after-rain aroma

Words that belong together

  • geosmin in water
  • a geosmin odor

On the page

The analysis detected geosmin in the earthy-smelling water.
She named geosmin only after checking the chemical result.

Related words

earthy-smelling compoundmicrobial metabolitepetrichor
Word forms
Base
geosmin

Usage notes

Primary category: sensory / description. Forms: Uncountable chemical name. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.

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