Aromatic describes something with a strong, pleasant smell, especially foods, plants, or spices. When you walk into a kitchen where someone's baking cookies, that wonderful smell filling the air is aromatic. Aromatic herbs like rosemary, basil, and thyme add both fragrance and flavor to cooking.

The word suggests something rich, distinctive, and usually inviting. Coffee beans are aromatic. So are pine trees, vanilla extract, and fresh bread. When a recipe calls for aromatic vegetables like onions, garlic, and celery, it means ingredients that release appealing smells as they cook and form the flavor foundation of the dish.

Scientists also use aromatic in chemistry to describe a specific ring-shaped structure in certain molecules, though this technical meaning has nothing to do with smell. In everyday conversation, though, aromatic simply means wonderfully fragrant, the kind of smell that makes you breathe deeply and say, “What's that amazing scent?”