How to Write 臭 (chòu/xiù) — Meaning “Smelly; stinky; foul.”

Picture a dog (犬) covering its own nose (自) because the air is so bad. This visual of a dog blocking its own nose from a stench directly reminds you that 臭 means 'stinky'.

The top part 自 uses 6 strokes (left vertical, top horizontal, left vertical again, then inner horizontal, then bottom horizontal, and finally the lower horizontal closure). The bottom part 犬 is 4 strokes: horizontal, left-falling, right-falling, and a small dot in the upper right corner. A common mistake is to write 犬 like 大 and forget the dot, or to make the 自 section too wide and squished.

Both characters use 自 on top, but 臭 has 犬 (dog) underneath, while 臬 has 木 (tree or wood) underneath. 臬 (niè) means 'standard' or 'target' and is very rare in modern Chinese, whereas 臭 (chòu) is common for describing bad smells.

You use 臭 for actual bad odors, like 臭豆腐 (stinky tofu) or 臭气 (stench). Culturally, the idiom 遗臭万年 means 'to leave a bad name for ages', and 乳臭未干 (literally 'milk smell not dry') describes someone as inexperienced or 'wet behind the ears'.

Common words containing 臭 include: 臭气 (chòu qì) — stench; foul smell; 遗臭万年 (yí chòu wàn nián) — To leave a bad name for ages; to be cursed by posterity.; 乳臭未干 (rǔ xiù wèi gān) — wet behind the ears / immature.