嗅 means “smell, sniff”

かぐ · kagu

Also: scent

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

かぐ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

キュウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 13 strokes

The story

A mouth (口), standing in for the nose, beside 臭, smell, here still written with its old dog (犬): picture a dog nose-down, sniffing along a trail. 嗅ぐ is to sniff, 嗅覚 is the sense of smell, and a reporter with a good 嗅覚 has a nose for a story.

Used in 嗅ぐ (kagu, to smell/sniff) and 嗅覚 (kyuukaku, sense of smell)

More from The Senses

• 瞭 clear
• 視 look at
• 聴 listen
• 芳 fragrant
• 眺 gaze
• 臭 smelly
• 盲 blind
• 薫 fragrant
• 匂 smell

Learn 嗅 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.