stink
/stɪŋk/verb, noun, adjective
stink is spelled S-T-I-N-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.9 times per million words in written English, the 15,798th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, stink means “To have a strong bad smell” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in stink?
| Letters | 5: S-T-I-N-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.9 times per million words; the 15,798th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is stink?
Stink appears 2.9 times per million words in written English, the 15,798th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce stink?
- /stɪŋk/
Stink has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-stink.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with stink?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as stink.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: knits, skint.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of stink
- stinks present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- stinking participle, present
- stank past
- stunk past, participle
- more stink comparative
- most stink superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does stink mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To have a strong bad smell.
- 2
informalTo be greatly inferior; to perform badly.
That movie stinks. I didn't even stay for the end.
- 3
To give an impression of dishonesty, untruth, or sin.
Something stinks about the politician's excuses.
- 4
To cause to stink; to affect by a stink.
noun
- 1
A strong bad smell.
- 2
informalA complaint or objection.
If you don't make a stink about the problem, nothing will be done.
adjective
- 1
slangBad; inferior; worthless.
The concert was stink. / That was a stink concert.
- 2
Bad-smelling, stinky.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Stink in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | puer, empester , puanteur , tapage |
| German | stinken, riechen, müffeln , Gestank |
| Portuguese | feder, tresandar , fedor, fetidez |
| Spanish | heder, apestar, cantar, oler mal, pudir, empestar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does stink come from?
From Middle English stinken, from Old English stincan, from Proto-Germanic *stinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ-, *stegʷ- (“to push, thrust, strike”). Cognate with West Frisian stjonke (“to stink”), Dutch stinken (“to stink”), German stinken (“to stink”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk stinke (“to stink”), Swedish stinka (“to stink”), Icelandic stökkva (“to spring, leap, jump”). Compare typologically Russian рази́ть (razítʹ).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).