Now, just as there are three primary colors and five basic tastes, researchers propose that odors can fall into 10 basic groups.

In the new scheme, woody smells like pine or fresh cut grass fall into one group. There are the sweet scents, like caramel, chocolate, vanilla. Florals and perfumes are one category, citrus fruits get another, and the rest of the fruit world is lumped into a third.

Less pleasant odors like sour milk, gasoline and rotten meat have their own fetid designations. Rounding out the list are minty smells — which include eucalyptus and camphor — and the smells of toasted, nutty snacks like popcorn, peanut butter and almonds.

More complex aromas like baked bread or fresh-brewed coffee might be best described as a combination of two or more of these 10 elements, just “as a combination of pitches make up a chord,” Jason Castro, associate professor of neuroscience and one of the authors of the new study published in the Sept. 18 issue of PLOS ONE, told NBC News.