English Explanatory Dictionary

painful

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental.
  2. Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person).
  3. Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious.
  4. Painstaking; careful; industrious.
  5. Very bad, poor.

Pronunciation

/ˈpeɪn.fl̩/ en-us-painful.ogg

Word forms

painful painfuller more painful painfullest most painful painfull

Etymology

From Middle English paynful, peinful, peynful, paynefull, peynefull, equivalent to pain + -ful. Compare Danish pinefuld (“painful”).

Synonyms

achesome aching achy raw hurt hurty griefful pained painfilled painful smartful smarting sore suffering tender tormented excruciating torturous agonizing ailsome groanful hellish hurtful painable terrible tormenting tormentous unpleasant wrenchful doleful sorrowful irksome annoying laborious exerting

Antonyms

acheless agreeable pain-free painless pleasant unaching painfree

Related words

agonizing

Derived words

nonpainful overpainful painful bladder syndrome painfully painfulness painful on the eyes prepainful unpainful
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on P Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary