Fetid means having a strong, unpleasant odor; foul-smelling or offensive to the sense of smell. It can describe something literally stinkily malodorous (like garbage or a corpse) or be used figuratively to mean something morally repugnant or corrupt. Key points:

• Primary sense: extremely bad odor
• Common synonyms: foul-smelling, malodorous, noisome, putrid, rank, stinking
• Etymology: derived from Latin fētidus, “having an offensive odor”