fetid

Or foet·id

[fet-id, fee-tid]

adjective

1. having an offensive odor; stinking.

   Synonyms: noisome, smelly, malodorous

fetid

/ ˈfɛtɪd, ˈfiː- /

adjective

1. having a stale nauseating smell, as of decay

Other Word Forms

• fetidly adverb
• fetidness noun
• fetidity noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of fetid¹

1590–1600; < Latin fētidus, equivalent to fēt- (stem of fētēre to stink) + -idus -id ⁴

Word History and Origins

Origin of fetid¹

C16: from Latin fētidus , from fētēre to stink; related to fūmus smoke

Example Sentences

The optimist notes that Baltimore’s division, the AFC North, is in a fetid state at the moment, with Aaron Rodgers and the strangely 3-1 Steelers coasting over the moribund Ravens, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

But the plants that seem the most out of place — as if they belonged in some distant jungle, not the rural Midwest — are the more fetid flowers.

Read more on Salon

Pawpaws' maroon flowers and fetid odor suggest that flies and beetles are the plant's primary pollinators.

Read more on Salon

By the end of the movie Swayze’s "cooler" has stopped a JCPenney department store from ruining the town’s all-American tanginess, or whatever, and heads off to spruce up some other fetid swill hole.

Read more on Salon

It is all too easy to find yourself submerged in fetid water, or sucked into a slurry of thick, black mud.

Read more on National Geographic

Related Words

• noxious 
• putrid 
• revolting 
• smelly 
• stinking 
• stinky