perception vs smelling

perception and smelling both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
perception	Yes	No	No	No
smelling	Yes	Yes	No	No

As nouns, smelling is a hyponym of perception; that is, smelling is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than perception:

Other hyponyms of perception include look, looking, looking at, hearing, listening, lipreading, taste, tasting, smell.

perception (noun)	smelling (noun)
becoming aware of something via the senses	the act of perceiving the odor of something
the process of perceiving
the representation of what is perceived; basic component in the formation of a concept
a way of conceiving something
knowledge gained by perceiving

perception (adjective)	smelling (adjective)
	(used with `of' or `with') noticeably odorous