Stench

//stɛnt͡ʃ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    a strong foul smell; a stink.
  2. 2
    a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant wordnet
  3. 3
    A foul quality. figuratively

    "the stench of political corruption"

  4. 4
    A smell or odour, not necessarily bad. obsolete

    "Black bulls, and bearded goats on altars lie; / And clouds of ſav'ry ſtench involve the ſky."

Verb
  1. 1
    To cause to emit a disagreeable odour; to cause to stink. obsolete

    "Dead bards stench every coast"

  2. 2
    To stanch.

Synonyms

All synonyms
fetormalodorreekstinkstinkaroma

Example

More examples

"The stench of rotting flesh overwhelmed us as we entered the room."

Etymology

From Middle English stench, from Old English stenċ (“stench, odor, fragrance”), from Proto-Germanic *stankwiz (“smell, fragrance, odor”), from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ- (“to push, thrust”). Cognate with Dutch stank (“stench, odor”), German Stank, Gestank (“stench, odor, smell”), Danish stank (“stench”), Swedish stank (“stench”), Icelandic stækja (“stench”).

Related phrases

stench bombstench trapstench trench

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.