different between redolent vs ambrosial

English

Etymology

From Middle English redolent (first attested in 1400), from Old French redolent, from Latin redolentem, present participle of redole? (“I emit a scent”), from red- + ole? (“I smell”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???d.?l.?nt/, /???d.??.l?nt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???d.?l.?nt/

Adjective

redolent (comparative more redolent, superlative most redolent)

1. Fragrant or aromatic; having a sweet scent.
2. Having the smell of the article in question.
   • 1861, Francis Colburn Adams, An Outcast, ch. 32:

     His breath is already redolent of whiskey.
3. (idiomatic) Suggestive or reminiscent.
   • 1919, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, A vision:

     But forth from sweat-shops, tenement and prison
     Wailed minor protests, redolent with pain.

   • 1926, H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu:

     He said that the geometry of the dream-place he saw was abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours.

Synonyms

• (fragrant or aromatic): aromatic, fragrant
• (having the smell of): reeking, smelling
• (suggestive or reminiscent): reminiscent, suggestive

Derived terms

• redolently

Related terms

• redolence
• redolency

Translations

Anagrams

• Del Norte, rondelet

Latin

Verb

redolent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of redole? : 'they smell' ( - intransitive - i.e. 'they emit / diffuse an odour' ).

English

Etymology

From ambrosia +? -al.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /am?b???z??l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /æm?b?o???l/

Adjective

ambrosial (comparative more ambrosial, superlative most ambrosial)

1. (Greek mythology) Pertaining to or worthy of the gods.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

     And whilst he slept she [Venus] over him would spred / Her mantle, colour’d like the starry skyes, / And her soft arme lay underneath his hed, / And with ambrosiall kisses bathe his eyes [...]

2. Succulently sweet or fragrant; balmy, divine.
   • J. S. Byerley, You Taught Me Love

     By your cheek of vermil hue,
     By your lip’s ambrosial dew,
     By your soft and languid eye,
     By your swelling bosom’s sigh,
     You taught me love.

Synonyms

• ambrosian

Derived terms

• ambrosially

Translations