rancid
Americanadjective
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having a rank, unpleasant, stale smell or taste, as through decomposition, especially of fats or oils.
rancid butter.
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(of an odor or taste) rank, unpleasant, and stale.
a rancid smell.
-
offensive or nasty; disagreeable.
adjective
-
(of butter, bacon, etc) having an unpleasant stale taste or smell as the result of decomposition
-
(of a taste or smell) rank or sour; stale
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rancid
1640–50; < Latin rancidus rank, stinking, equivalent to ranc ( ēre ) to be rotten + -idus -id 4
Explanation
Rancid means sour, rotten, and nasty and refers most specifically to the sharp bad smell of decomposing oils or fats. "Rancid" is a great name for a post-punk band, but a lousy way to describe the sauce on your eggs Benedict. If you've never had the pleasure of smelling something rancid, life has quite a wallop in store for you. As meat, fat, or oil decomposes the chemical change creates a sharp wretched stink that will cause you to recoil. It's just foul. The powerful horrendous fragrance of rancid butter, therefore, makes the word wonderfully potent to describe all sorts of things — from a corrupt dictatorship to a party that's gone on a few hours too long.
Vocabulary lists containing rancid
The Cay
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Oh, No! Synonyms for "Bad"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Prowling through the writer’s time in this “fog-smeared” town, Mr. Fiennes looks for the sources of Sartre’s “bleak but funny” debut work, with its “peculiarly rancid energy.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
Antioxidant preservatives instead slow oxidation, a chemical process that can cause foods to brown, develop unpleasant flavors, or become rancid.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
Such confidence schemes are known as “pig butchering” — a particularly rancid term for a rancid business.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
As Nolso opens the door, a rancid odour escaped.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026
As I completed them, I began to notice that my heels of bread grew larger; my ration of watery soup contained a stringy piece of vegetable, or sometimes a hunk of rancid meat.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
