Scientific research Expeditie Next (2025) — © Video by Guusje Meeuwissen
What do you smell?
Scientific study in collaboration with Radboud University Nijmegen
– Expeditie Next 2025
In the Dutch language, there are many words that help us express what we see. At the same time, there are only a few words that describe what we smell. For example, there is only one official smell word in the Dutch dictionary and that is 'muf' ('musty' in English). To describe smells, in the Dutch language we mainly use words that name the source of a smell, for example: it smells like flowers. But what we experience when we smell something is usually much richer than that. That is why we are looking for new smell language.
With this research, we want to find out whether words from other language domains can help children to talk about what they smell. Could we say that something smells “green” or “soft”? Or could we use emotion words and say, for example, that something smells “cheerful” or “calm”? The research results contribute to new scientific theories about language and help to develop new educational material for children about smell language.
During Expedition Next 2025, we collected data from 150 children about the associations they have with different smells.
More about the research results soon!
Info
Scientific study: Dr. Laura Speed (Radboud University), Prof. Asifa Majid (Oxford University), Dr. Ilja Croijmans (Radboud Universtiy), Lotte Meeuwissen
Concept and design: Lotte Meeuwissen
Project support: Berit Smit
Smells by: International Flavours and Fragrances
Research assistents: Yzette Aro, Dunya Akbari, Bea van den Berg
Thanks to
Dutch Research Council (NWO)
Radboud University Nijmegen
It is a big challenge to talk about what we smell. When we try to put a smell into words, we often don’t get any further than “Ehm… I smelled this before… yeah… it reminds me of… ehm…”. That’s not surprising, because very few words exist to describe smells.
Yet your nose is very important. Every time you breathe in, your nose gives you important information. For example, by smelling you can know where you are and whether there is danger. Smells can tell you who is standing in front of you or evoke a forgotten memory. One smell makes you happy, while another smell makes you feel disgusted. What we smell gives a lot of meaning to our lives. But because we don’t know how to talk about it, we don’t always notice it.
By finding more words to talk about what we smell, we learn to better use our nose. This is especially important for children who have difficulty seeing. Because when your eyes don’t work well, talking about what you smell helps you get a better idea of the world around you.
Scientific research Expeditie Next (2025) — © Photos by Guusje Meeuwissen