These two adjectives are related but have different meanings.
Odious means offensive or worse than offensive—hateful and morally wrong:
Human trafficking is among the most odious of crimes.
Odorous describes strong smells—i.e., strong odors. It can refer to both good and bad smells:
The skunk’s odorous spray is a mixture of sulfur-containing compounds.
Odious in a Sentence
- Rita had an odious habit of making sarcastic comments about everyone around her.
- James is an odious man, and I can’t stand being in the same room as him.
- It’s odious that people can be so cruel and insensitive to others while on the internet.
- I can’t stand it when people are late; it’s an odious habit!
- The sound of his voice is so odious to me that I have to cover my ears if his songs are playing, but somehow he seems to have a large following of devoted fans.
Odorous in a Sentence
- When Thomas realized the source of the odorous smell, he was absolutely mortified.
- When I walked into the gym, the odorous smell of sweat and dirty socks was overwhelming.
- The odorous garbage pile was attracting flies and making the whole block smell bad.
- This odorous plant right here is called a skunk cabbage—it’s not my neighbors’ favorite plant, but I’ve grown fond of it.
- Kate always wore the most wonderful fragrances; being next to her was like entering an odorous nirvana.