The difference between Malodorous and Smelly

When used as adjectives, malodorous means having a bad odor, whereas smelly means having a bad smell.


Smelly is also noun with the meaning: a short magazine lee enfield rifle or one of its derivatives.

check bellow for the other definitions of Malodorous and Smelly

  1. Malodorous as an adjective:

    Having a bad odor.

    Examples:

    "There were tons of malodorous garbage bags outside her house."

  2. Malodorous as an adjective (figuratively):

    Highly improper.

  1. Smelly as an adjective:

    Having a bad smell.

    Examples:

    "She was hesitant to remove her shoes, as her socks were rather smelly."

  2. Smelly as an adjective (figuratively):

    Having a quality that arouses suspicion.

    Examples:

    "The detective read the documents and thought, "Something sure is smelly about this case."

  3. Smelly as an adjective (figuratively, computing, slang, in [[extreme programming]]):

    Having signs that suggest a design problem; having a code smell.

    Examples:

    "That smelly code needs to be refactored."

  1. Smelly as a noun (firearms, informal):

    a Short Magazine Lee Enfield rifle or one of its derivatives.