Concept-taste and concept-smell synesthesia

Alternative names could be conceptual-gustatory and conceptual-olfactory synesthesia

One uncommon type of synesthesia involves a taste or smell concurrent being triggered by different concepts that form part of a series or sequence.

Two examples of this type with documented cases involve graphemes (letters and numbers) and colours: grapheme-taste, grapheme-smell, colour-to-taste and colour-to-smell synesthesia. There are also cases involving time units, where the concept of each month, day of the week etc. causes a specific taste or smell to be perceived. 

Here are three examples of people who perceive tastes for days of the week. As you can see, the idiosyncratic nature of synesthesia means that the taste sensations are entirely different between synesthetes, and sometimes not all the weekdays have a taste, although those that do are consistent:  

"For me, days of the week have tastes and colors. Mondays (pastel pink), Wednesdays (pastel green), and Fridays (pastel orange), all have a light, sweet taste. Tuesdays and Thursdays (light blue and navy blue) have a heavy, bitter taste on the back of my throat. Saturdays and Sundays (light yellow/off white) have a taste hard to describe as anything but clear. Almost like chicken broth, but without the taste of chicken.

And yeah, it is really weird to have. Sometimes I have to stop myself from swallowing when thinking or talking about days of the week."

(Source: This comment on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2013.)

“Monday: rice. Tuesday: spinach. Wednesday: nails. Thursday: stir fry. Friday: smells/tastes like flower toilet spray. Saturday: caramel chocolate. Sunday: cheap biscuits and tea.”

“Monday tastes like ice cream mixed with chocolate syrup. It’s very vivid. Tuesday has a taste that’s kind of meaty that I can’t identify. The others I don’t really have an automatic association for.”

(Source: These comments on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2020.)

Time units like days or months are a very common inducer for synesthesia, but sometimes it is triggered by lesser-known series, sets or sequences. This next example is of a person who has concept-smell synesthesia with different types of insects:

“There are a few specific insects that I can smell whenever I see one. Each insect has a smell that is unique to that type. For example this one kind of moth has the "moth" smell and I never smell that same scent unless I see that one kind of moth. (…) Note, these are not insects that emit odors.”

(Source: a comment on the Tree page on olfactory-visual synesthesia. 2022.)

But really any series of abstract concepts is a possible contender for evoking a synesthetic reaction. This interesting case involves a series that's so abstract that it doesn't really have a name: the styles or feelings of the inkflows of a series of different writing instruments.

"I found myself always smelling marzipan when I use a pen I like. I thought maybe the ink just smelt like marzipan but after asking friends and using different pens I've realised it's just me that smells it and it can be different pens but it's specific to how smooth the ink writes on the page."

(Source: This post on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2023.)

Another manifestation of concept-smell is this fascinating case of someone who perceives smells when they read different writing styles:

“So for me it's not every book/piece of writing, and tends to get stronger the longer I read something written in that author's style. Most writing styles don't smell of anything (Textbooks and news articles that relate facts plainly or forum posts are generally neutral). The more affected the style of prose is, the stronger it smells. So far, doesn't seem to happen with audiobooks.

For instance, I can't stand reading anything by Rudyard Kipling for very long because it smells so strongly of rotting orange peels. It gives me a headache. The same with Bram Stoker, I couldn't finish Dracula in part because it smelled exactly like an old bannister that had been covered in too many layers of varnish and gone gummy. On the other hand, books in the Redwall series smell faintly like those pepto-pink grandma candies that turn to powder in your mouth, though the smell is easily overtaken by whatever scent is being described in the scene.”

(Source: This post and comment on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2023.)

It’s interesting to note that when this synesthete reads a description of something with a particular smell they also often automatically perceive the corresponding scent physically, as if they were smelling it in real life. This happens to some people – synesthetes and non-synesthetes alike – regularly or occasionally and is not considered synesthesia but "olfactory imagination", "olfactorization" or "olfactory hyperphantasia". However, in this case it coexists with their concept-smell synesthesia, exceeding it in intensity and cancelling out the synesthetic smell:

“It also seems like [some synesthetic smells] get overtaken by the suggestion of what's going on in the scene, like the forest smell in LOTR, or the coffee shop at the beginning of Hitchhiker's Guide, or any mentions of food/sea spray/flowers/blood/mustiness/dust.”

(Source: same as above)

As with other types of synesthesia, the taste or smell concurrents are automatic or involuntary, and they are consistent. This means the synesthete doesn't have to think about or decide on the taste or smell, and the same taste or smell is always produced by the same conceptual trigger. In practice, for these types of synesthesia to manifest, some focus or concentration on the stimulus in question would probably be required, or a particular frame of mind (it would occur at times when the synesthete is particularly sensitive, tired, relaxed, etc.). So the synesthetic tastes or smells might not be produced every single time the person perceives the concept in question, as is also often the case for other types of synesthesia that have smell or taste concurrents.

Lexical-gustatory and lexical-olfactory synesthesia, where words have tastes or smells, could perhaps be included in this group if it is considered that the words triggering them are concepts.

Some types of musical sequence synesthesia with taste or smell concurrents could also fit in with this definition. These would mainly be cases of tastes or smells evoked by musical notes, chords and songs/musical genres.

Another type would be personality-taste/personality-smell synesthesia.

Although it is not normally considered synesthesia, you can also find information on concepts triggering smells and tastes on the page on Smelling and tasting images.

This page last updated: 18 May 2026