is there any time one is better than the other or more appropriate
also what about pongy or whiffy?
2007-12-29 08:19:25 · 9 answers · asked by 676petersonjenni 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Usage is everything when it comes to defining words.
Stinky
1.foul smelling; stinking.
2.Informal. mean-spirited; nasty.
Smelly
emitting a strong or unpleasant odor; reeking
Pongy
Aussie slang for something that smells particularly pungent.
Whiffy
British slang for a pungent odor.
A pong-whiffy is a very bad smell.
Oh, and don't forget: Nasty
American slang for a truly disgusting, stinky smell.
2007-12-29 08:38:18 · answer #1 · answered by Beach Saint 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To me, "smelly" and "stinky" both have connotations that you are talking about something that smells bad. So they are pretty much interchangeable, although "stinky" seems to be stronger, and therefore less polite.
There is a difference in frequency. According to corpus.byu.edu, "smelly" is a lot more frequent than "stinky", appearing 257 times per million words in comparison to "stinky"'s 14 times per million words. Additional searching with this corpus might uncover that one is more common in different contexts, etc.
"Pongy" came up with frequency of 4 times per million, and "whiffy" did not have any entries in this corpus.
(P.S. I'm a speaker of American English; I've never even heard of "pongy" before.)
2007-12-29 16:48:04 · answer #2 · answered by drshorty 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
smelly is a more respectable word, whereas stinky implies a very bad smell indeed.
pongy & whiffy are colloquial slangy words
2007-12-29 16:22:18 · answer #3 · answered by Solusia 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Though the words,smelly and stinky, relate to odor, they are not interchangeable.It is like saying the water is lukewarm or it is boiling hot.
Simply speaking, when you say that something is smelly, you mean it has unpleasant smell.When you say that something is stinking, you say that it is emitting extremely unpleasant smell.
2007-12-30 05:52:31 · answer #4 · answered by yogeshwargarg 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Smelly means somthing has a strong smell, it ussually means a bad smell, but not always.
Stinky means something has a bad smell, or it can describe a mean person.
2007-12-29 16:25:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My brother is smelly, But you is stinky
2007-12-30 08:46:48 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Fish is smelly. Cat**** is bad stinky.
2007-12-29 16:23:35 · answer #7 · answered by msjventi1 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they are interchangeable.
smell·y /ËsmÉli/ [smel-ee] –adjective, smell·i·er, smell·i·est.
emitting a strong or unpleasant odor; reeking.
stink·y /ËstɪÅki/ [sting-kee] –adjective, stink·i·er, stink·i·est. 1. foul smelling; stinking.
2007-12-29 16:27:59 · answer #8 · answered by Who's sarcastic? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
garbage is smelly poo is stinky.
2007-12-29 16:22:23 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋