code smell

noun

Anything in a program's source code that suggests the presence of a design problem.

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Meanings

nouncode smell (plural code smells)

plural code smells

  1. computingAnything in a program's source code that suggests the presence of a design problem.

    A well-known code smell is as follows: a function should do one thing.

    2021, Christian Clausen, Five Lines of Code: How and when to Refactor, Manning, →ISBN, page 4

Origin

Analogous to a bad smell indicating e.g. rotten food. Apparently coined by American software engineer Kent Beck, in the late 1990s. Popularized via the book Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, co-authored by Beck.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Finnish koodihaju
  • koodihajudesign problem in code
German Code-Smell
  • Code-Smelldesign problem in code
Cite this entry
APA

code smell. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/code%20smell

MLA

“code smell.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/code%20smell. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “code smell,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/code%20smell.

Source: code smell on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.