Organism Function
olfaction Audio
ol·fac·tion [ ol-fak-shuhn, ohl- ]
Subclass of:
Esthesia
Definitions related to smell perception:
  • (smell) The ability to detect scents or odors, such as the function of OLFACTORY RECEPTOR NEURONS.
    NLM Medical Subject Headings
    U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2025
  • (olfaction) Sensation or perception of scents or odors; sense of smell.
    CRISP Thesaurus
    National Institutes of Health, 2006
  • (sensory perception of smell) The series of events required for an organism to receive an olfactory stimulus, convert it to a molecular signal, and recognize and characterize the signal. Olfaction involves the detection of chemical composition of an organism's ambient medium by chemoreceptors. This is a neurological process.
    Gene Ontology Dictionary
    Gene Ontology Consortium, 2021
  • Smell, the detection and identification by sensory organs of airborne chemicals. The concept of smell, as it applies to humans, becomes less distinct when invertebrates and lower vertebrates (fish and amphibians) are considered, because many lower animals detect chemicals in the environment by...
    Encyclopedia Britannica
    Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2025
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