pain

A2 Topic:Health & Medicine

Also spelled paine

US /ˈpeɪn/ UK /peɪn/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like pen /ɛ/ vs /eɪ/

Freq #725

Meanings

1

noun
An unpleasant physical feeling caused by illness or injury.

The greatest difficulty lies in treating patients with chronic pain.
2

noun
A feeling of mental or emotional suffering.

She still feels the pain of losing her closest friend.
3

noun
An annoying person or thing.

Filling in all these forms is a real pain.
4

verb
To cause someone emotional suffering.

It pains me to see my children struggling at school.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an unpleasant physical... hurting

2 noun · a feeling of mental or... anguish distress grief

3 noun · an annoying person or thing. nuisance bother pest

4 verb · to cause someone emotional... hurt

More misery wark

Opposites

pleasure

Word family

Forms painingpains

Derived forms after-painafterpainantipainhunger-painman-painmanpainpain-freepain-makingpain-rackedpain-relievingpainablepainal

Related forms pained painful painfully painless painlesslypainlessness

Appears in

Phrases (11)

See all

constant pain
pain that is continuous and unrelenting

Adjective + noun
severe pain
intense, extreme pain

Adjective + noun
sharp pain
a sudden, piercing pain

Adjective + noun
cause pain
produce a feeling of physical or emotional hurt

Verb + noun
ease pain
reduce the severity of pain

Verb + noun
feel pain
experience a sensation of physical or emotional hurt

Verb + noun

Proverbs (9)

See all

Simplified etymology

Pain goes back to Latin poena, which originally meant “penalty” and later came to mean physical or mental suffering. The same source produced penal and penalty and is related to the Latin verb punire, from which punish developed.

Etymology

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).

*kʷey- Proto-Indo-European peyne Middle English peine xno poena Latin ποινή Ancient Greek *kʷoinā́ grk-pro *kʷoynéh₂ Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Health & Medicine

External links

# pain

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A2
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈpeɪn/
**IPA (UK):** /peɪn/
**Frequency rank:** 725

## Meanings
1. An unpleasant physical feeling caused by illness or injury.
2. A feeling of mental or emotional suffering.
3. An annoying person or thing.
4. To cause someone emotional suffering.

## Examples
- The greatest difficulty lies in treating patients with chronic pain.
- She still feels the pain of losing her closest friend.
- Filling in all these forms is a real pain.
- It pains me to see my children struggling at school.

## Synonyms
- misery
- wark

## Antonyms
- pleasure

## Derived Forms
- after-pain
- afterpain
- antipain
- hunger-pain
- man-pain
- manpain
- pain-free
- pain-making
- pain-racked
- pain-relieving
- painable
- painal

## Related Forms
- pained
- painful
- painfully
- painless
- painlessly
- painlessness

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *kʷey-
- Root: peyne
- Root: peine
- Root: poena
- Root: ποινή
- Root: *kʷoinā́
- Root: *kʷoynéh₂

## Etymology
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).

## AI Etymology
Pain comes 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). Modern senses include an unpleasant physical feeling caused by illness or injury and a feeling of mental or emotional suffering. The wider word family includes derivatives such as after-pain, afterpain, antipain, hunger-pain, man-pain, and manpain and related forms such as pained, painful, painfully, and painless.

## Topics
- Health & Medicine

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