A stench is a smell so bad it's almost overwhelming. A stench hits you hard and makes you want to cover your face or leave the room immediately. The word itself sounds unpleasant, which fits perfectly with what it describes.

You might encounter a stench near a dumpster on a hot summer day, in a locker room that hasn't been cleaned in weeks, or when opening a long-forgotten container in the back of the refrigerator. Old gym socks create a stench. So do spoiled milk and rotten eggs.

The word carries a sense of something genuinely foul and repulsive. A flower you don't like might have an odor you dislike, but garbage rotting in the sun creates a stench. When writers want to describe something truly disgusting or morally corrupt, they sometimes use stench figuratively: “the stench of corruption” suggests something deeply wrong, not an actual smell.

If you ever forget to take out the trash for a week in warm weather, you'll understand why people sometimes say a stench is overpowering or unbearable. It's the kind of smell that announces itself the moment you walk into a room.