Code smell

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In the community of computer programming, code smell is any symptom that indicates something may be wrong. It generally indicates that the code should be refactored or the overall design should be reexamined. The term appears to have been coined by Kent Beck on WardsWiki. Usage of the term increased after it was featured in Refactoring. Improving the Design of Existing Code.

Determining what is and is not a code smell is often a subjective judgment, and will often vary by language, developer and development methodology.

[edit] Common code smells

Large method - a method, function, or procedure that has grown too large.
Large class - a class that has grown too large, see God object.
Feature envy - a class that uses methods of another class excessively.
Inappropriate intimacy - a class that has dependencies on implementation details of another class.
Refused bequest - a class that overrides a method of a base class in such a way that the contract of the base class is not honored by derived class. See Liskov substitution principle.
Lazy class - a class that does too little.
Duplicated method - a method, function, or procedure that is very similar to another.
Contrived Complexity - forced usage of overly complicated design patterns where simpler design would suffice.