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 flowers were described as “dull, lead colored things,” “fetid” and “horrible … exceedingly disagreeable.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Mystified, he wanders the dank halls of their rented palazzo and the fetid alleyways of the “pestilential city” where canal waters slither past like “a fat, grey-green worm.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

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 The 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

Related Words

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