Smelled or Smelt | Meaning, Difference & Examples
Smelt and smelled are two different spellings of the past tense of the verb “smell,” used to mean “detect the scent of something” or “emit an odor.”
The spelling tends to vary based on whether you’re using UK or US English:
- In UK English, both “smelled” and “smelt” are commonly used.
- In US English, “smelled” is standard, and “smelt” is generally not accepted.
The bear cub smelt/smelled the camper’s food and made its way to the campsite.
Andrea smelt/smelled all the candles before she bought one.
“Smell” can be either regular or irregular, with the irregular form more commonly used in UK English. This is also true of “spelt/spelled,” “learnt/learned,” “knelt/kneeled,” and “dreamt/dreamed.”
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Other uses of smelt
Smelt is also used as a noun to refer to a type of small fish and a verb to refer to the act of extracting metal from its ore by melting it.
When he lived beside the lake, Greg used to fish for smelt.
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If you want to know more about commonly confused words, definitions, and differences between US and UK spellings, make sure to check out some of our other language articles with explanations, examples, and quizzes.
Definitions
US vs. UK spellings
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Ryan, E. (2023, September 25). Smelled or Smelt | Meaning, Difference & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 22, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/us-vs-uk/smelled-or-smelt/
