Other forms: smelliest; smellier
Smelly things give off a bad odor. After her joyful swim in a swampy lake, your dog will probably be smelly.
You could call smelly things stinky, putrid, or rank. Your brother's sweaty feet are smelly, and your neighbor's cabbage soup is smelly too. While things like flowers and homemade gingerbread are fragrant or aromatic, smelly things — like your neighborhood on garbage day — are just plain smelly. We know that smelly comes from smell, "odor, aroma, or stench," which followed the verb smell, "emit or perceive an odor," but the word's origin is unknown.