stink
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To have a strong bad smell.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stingkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstɪŋk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
intransitive
To have a strong bad smell.
intransitivestativeinformal
To be greatly inferior; to perform badly.
intransitive
To give an impression of dishonesty, untruth, or sin.
transitive
To cause to stink; to affect by a stink.
noun
A strong bad smell.
informal
A complaint or objection.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To have a strong bad smell.
Used this way, stink is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use stink
- “This term paper stinks!”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Having an unpleasant smell.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Pale green unpleasant-smelling lacewing fly having carnivorous larvae.
Cause to smell bad.
Cause to smell bad.
Shrub with trifoliate leaves and yellow flowers followed by backward curving seed pods.
Rare small evergreen of northern Florida.
Widespread rank-smelling weed having white-rayed flower heads with yellow discs.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.