: having a heavy offensive smell
a fetid swamp
fetidly
adverb
fetidness
noun
Examples of fetid in a Sentence
a fetid pool of water
the fetid odor of rotting vegetables
Recent Examples on the Web
Their stories include the reasons that kept them from evacuating and then the harrowing odysseys that took some of them through fetid streets of flood waters, others to the nightmare that was the Superdome or the Convention Center, and still others across impassable bridges and freeways.
—
Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 22 July 2025
That is now as pathetic to me as a fetid caveman’s toolmaking would be to a great thinker like da Vinci or even Edgar Allen Poe.
—Graham Techler, New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2025
Harold had exclaimed when the fetid, turquoise sea had at last come into view.
—Nicole Krauss, The Atlantic, 6 July 2025
Decades of despoiling water bodies have taken a terrible toll, filling water bodies with fetid algae that blocks sunlight and smothers the native seagrass beds that are a main food source for manatees.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 26 June 2025
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Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 22 July 2025
That is now as pathetic to me as a fetid caveman’s toolmaking would be to a great thinker like da Vinci or even Edgar Allen Poe.
—Graham Techler, New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2025
Harold had exclaimed when the fetid, turquoise sea had at last come into view.
—Nicole Krauss, The Atlantic, 6 July 2025
Decades of despoiling water bodies have taken a terrible toll, filling water bodies with fetid algae that blocks sunlight and smothers the native seagrass beds that are a main food source for manatees.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 26 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for fetid
Cite this Entry
“Fetid.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fetid. Accessed 29 Jul. 2025.
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