pain

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.
2. (countable, plural-normally, uncountable) An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.
3. (uncountable) The condition or fact of suffering or anguish especially mental, as opposed to pleasure; torment; distress
4. (countable) An annoying person or thing.
5. (dated, uncountable) Suffering inflicted as punishment or penalty.
6. (countable, in-plural, uncountable) Labour; effort; great care or trouble taken in doing something.

Verb

1. (transitive) To hurt; to put to bodily uneasiness or anguish; to afflict with uneasy sensations of any degree of intensity; to torment; to torture.
2. (transitive) To render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress; to grieve.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To inflict suffering upon as a penalty; to punish.
4. (India, intransitive) To feel pain; to hurt.

Opposite of

pleasure, agony

Synonyms

ache

suffering

distress

hurt

affliction

torment

sorrow

trouble

anguish

grief

agony

sickness

soreness

illness

sore

disease

torture

misery

hardship

annoyance

wound

painful

pang

woe

aching

smart

ordeal

afflict

discomfort

sick

🤢

difficulty

inflammation

sadness

grieve

injure

pain in the neck

bitterness

vexation

ailment

nuisance

injury

punishment

hurting

harass

stabbing pain

sting

effort

ail

painfulness

botheration

Translations

douleur

dolor

dolore

Schmerz

pijn

dor

πόνος

dolor

peine

acı

ağrı

ألم

Qual

dolor

Pronounced as (IPA)

/peɪn/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: peyne

Cognate with Danish: pine

Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål: pine

Cognate with German: Pein

Cognate with Dutch: pijn

Cognate with Afrikaans: pyn

In summary

From Middle English peyne, payne, from Old French and Anglo-Norman peine, paine, from Latin poena (“punishment, pain”), from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “bloodmoney, weregild, fine, price paid, penalty”), from Proto-Hellenic *kʷoinā́, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷoynéh₂ (“payment”) (whence also Proto-Slavic *cěnà (“price”)).
Doublet of peine. Compare Danish pine, Norwegian Bokmål pine, German Pein, Dutch pijn, Afrikaans pyn. See also pine (the verb). Partly displaced native Old English sār (whence Modern English sore).