In terms of flavors in cooking, "pungent" means "spicy"!
Pungent is one of the five flavors. It is also known as the spicy flavor.
The five flavors include: pungent, sweet, sour,
bitter, and salty.
The word "pungent" cannot be replaced by "spicy".
"Spicy" is the common name for the flavor "pungent".
In fact, in culinary terminology, if you describe a food as having a "spicy" flavor, you use the word "pungent" rather than "spicy".
So why can't the "pungent" in flavor be replaced by "spicy"? The word "spicy" is actually a concept with a lot of meaning. The word "spicy" is actually a concept with many meanings, in fact, "spicy" is a generalized reference to garlic. Onions, ginger in the pungent flavor.
The difference between "spicy" and "pungent" is that spicy is a sensation that can be obtained by smelling and tasting, while "pungent" is not a sensation that can be obtained by smelling. In some cases, the food must be tasted to obtain the flavor, for example, dried chili peppers prior to cooking cannot be smelled alone to obtain the feeling of spiciness, but only tasted.
Also, in the specialized vocabulary, pungent cannot be replaced by spicy.
As an example,
Describing the properties of walnuts, it is like this: walnuts, neutral, sweet flavor, astringent 。。。。
So, we daily describe a food is very sweet,
with the "sweet",
in fact, the professional vocabulary should be "sweet" rather than "sweet
In fact, the technical term should be "sweet" rather than "sweet".
The above is the same thing.
So, in our daily life, we always say "spicy",
The word "spicy" used in this vocabulary is an adjective used to indicate that the spicy flavor goes on and on, with the characteristic of dispersing and prolonging the meaning, rather than referring to the five flavors of the "pungent".