The is not a very good definition. A Code smell is a symptom of a broader design problem. It’s a SYMPTOM. Think of it as a canary in a coal mine. (that’s the smell part). When you call specific practices a code smell, you’re misusing the term and it can cause problems with your team. When you point at a piece of code and say, look there…that’s a code smell, what your code reviewee may be hearing is “Your code stinks”. That is not the point of a code smell, and it is counter productive.