“Oud” is the Arabic word for wood, and in perfumery it refers to agarwood and its oil. Same tree, two vocabularies: in East Asia the material is usually called agarwood or chenxiang (“sinking incense,” for resin-heavy wood that sinks in water); in the Middle East and the West, the same material is oud.
You will also see “oud” used for fragrances inspired by the note — synthetic or natural — which is not the same as the raw wood. If you are buying wood, chips, coils or oil, what matters is the material itself: species, resin content, origin, and documentation.
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