pain
pain Lexical Profile
pain Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An unpleasant physical sensation caused by illness, injury, or bodily disorder, ranging from mild discomfort to acute agony.
"The patient reported a sharp pain in his lower back after lifting the heavy crate."
Mental or emotional suffering, grief, or distress resulting from loss, disappointment, or affliction.
"Time slowly eased the emotional pain of losing her childhood home."
An annoying, tedious, or troublesome person or thing (used informally).
"Filling out all these duplicate tax forms is a real pain."
Careful, diligent effort or trouble taken to achieve a particular result (almost always used in the plural form 'pains').
"The archivist took great pains to preserve the fragile nineteenth-century manuscripts."
• verb
To cause mental distress, sorrow, or physical suffering to someone.
"It pained her to see the historic theater fall into disrepair."
Word Nuance & Usage
Do not confuse with its homophone 'pane', which refers to a single sheet of glass in a window or door. In the plural ('pains'), the noun specifically means careful effort or trouble taken to accomplish something (e.g., 'take great pains'), rather than multiple physical aches.
• Rhymes for pain
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed from Old French 'peine', from Latin 'poena' meaning 'punishment, penalty, or torment', which in turn derived from Ancient Greek 'poinē' ('retribution' or 'blood-money').