Printed from smellbook.com/smells/raincoat. This printout keeps the entry for Raincoat itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
A weather-worn clothing smell combining waterproof material, rain, cool air and stored textile context.
Setting: material · rainy. An editorial word for the kind of place or occasion the smell belongs to, not a smell word.
A raincoat smells cool, wet and slightly rubbery or plasticky, with the fresh smell of rain on its surface. EDITORIAL
Links SmellBook records for this entry: where you meet it and related smells. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors. Nothing here is a ranking.
QUESTIONS ABOUT RAINCOAT
A raincoat smells cool, wet and slightly rubbery or plasticky, with the fresh smell of rain on its surface. When it hangs damp the smell turns heavier and more enclosed, and stored raincoats take on a musty, stale note. The smell is modest and mainly noticed up close or in small spaces.
It is met on rainy walks and commutes, on coat hooks and in porches after a downpour, and in school cloakrooms and hallways where wet coats are left to dry.
Typical settings: rainy walk, coat hook, wet commute.
SmellBook links it to one place page: see it in Connections.
No VERIFIED evidence is recorded for this entry yet. Nothing on this page should be read as a scientific explanation. Sources have been searched for and none suitable has been found so far.
Raincoat is a context-rich object profile and varies by material, age and drying state.
No historical source or heritage record is linked to this entry yet.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
SmellBook adds citations claim by claim when reliable sources are available. Everything else on this page is editorial description, labelled separately.
Research status: searched, nothing suitable found yet (4 recorded searches, latest on 2026-10-24). An 1859 periodical account of the india-rubber trade describes the smell of vulcanised rubber in general, not of waterproof coats or the cloth they were made of. How the research agenda works ↗
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
MY SMELLBOOK · LOCAL ONLY
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MAP THIS SMELL
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WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
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FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite Raincoat.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: NONE YET.
A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0193 — Raincoatsmellbook:smell:raincoathttps://smellbook.com/smells/raincoatSmellBook. (2026). Raincoat (revision 3, 2026-10-06). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:raincoat. https://smellbook.com/smells/raincoat@misc{smellbook_raincoat_r3,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {Raincoat},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 3, 2026-10-06, smellbook:smell:raincoat},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/raincoat}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-raincoat-r3 TI - Raincoat AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/06 ET - revision 3 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/raincoat N1 - SB-0193; smellbook:smell:raincoat; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/raincoat ER -
The citation names revision 3 of 2026-10-06, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
Raincoat is a context-rich object profile and varies by material, age and drying state.
Editorial description expanded to answer what it smells like and where you meet it; independently reviewed.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-06Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30; changed in the first of two dataset releases of 2026-10-05 (descriptors).
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗