Geosmin
//d͡ʒiˈɑz.mɪn// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A bacterial derivative of decahydronaphthalene that has a strong earthy smell and is the material responsible for petrichor and for the earthy taste of beetroot. countable, uncountable
"A good example of this is geosmin, for which a typical sensitivity for the human nose is below 10 parts per trillion (10 parts in 10¹⁸ v/v) (ppt)."
Example
More examples"A good example of this is geosmin, for which a typical sensitivity for the human nose is below 10 parts per trillion (10 parts in 10¹⁸ v/v) (ppt)."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek γεω- (geō-, “earth”) + ὀσμή (osmḗ, “smell”) + -in. Coined by American biochemist Nancy N. Gerber and French-American biologist Hubert A. Lechevalier in 1965.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.