painful

Meaning

  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. (archaic) Painstaking; careful; industrious.
  5. (informal) Very bad, poor.

Opposite of
painless, painfree
Synonyms

sick
A1
🤢
sore
B2
distressing
20k
bitter
B2
aching
C2
grevious
hurt
A1
suffer
B1
pain
A2
excruciating
20k
suffering
B1
unpleasant
C1
ache
C1
difficult
A2
afflictive
hard
A1
agonizing
24k
heavy
B1
tough
A2
ill
B1
🤢
trying
A1
arduous
27k
burdensome
sad
A2
☹️
distressful
hurting
B2
disagreeable
24k
hurtful
C2
awful
B1
deplorable
28k
troublesome
C2
tiresome
C2
atrocious
21k
suffocating
C2
tender
B2
grievous
20k
terrible
A2
raw
B2

poignant

sharp
B2
pathetic
B2
abominable
20k
pitiable
43k
onerous
oppressive
24k
pitiful
C1
dreadful
C1
irritating
C2
hot
A1
🥵
miserable
B2
Translations

douloureux
schmerzhaft
doloroso
pijnlijk
doloroso
doloroso
zeer
smartelijk
deerlijk
pénible

ağrılı

moeizaam

biazar

êşdar

jandar

Frequency

B2
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈpeɪn.fəl/
Etymology

Inherited from Middle English
paynful
Cognate with Danish
pinefuld
In summary

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

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