Learn English – Difference between expend and spend

Great question! Creams are an aqueous oil/fat emulsion. This gives them a creamy consistency and are often "cream-colored" while lotions might be any color and need not be an emulsion- think Aloe Vera lotion for example. So a cream might also be called a lotion, while only creamy lotions could be called creams.

cream A viscous aqueous oil/fat emulsion with a medicament added, used to apply that medicament to the skin. (compare with ointment) You look really sunburnt; you should apply some cream.

lotion A low- to medium-viscosity topical preparation intended for application to unbroken skin.

Note that Wiktionary uses viscosity as another distinguishing characteristic. I'm not so sure that it works in all case- I've seen some pretty runny creams, and some thick lotions.

The Oxford dictionary describes stench as:

A strong and very unpleasant smell

It describes stink as:

A strong unpleasant smell; a stench

So according to this, both words mean the same. I found also that both have the same etymology. They arise from the Old English stenc.

I was wondering if there were a shred of difference in their meanings but I am not able to find any. An English professor, very long ago, had told me that no two words in the English language have the same meaning. They may have similar meanings, but not same. But here we seem to have refuted his ideology.