painful

B1 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈpeɪn.fl̩/ See IPA manual

Freq #3050

Meanings

1

adj
Causing physical pain.

The swollen tooth made it painful for her to eat.
2

adj
Causing emotional distress or unhappiness.

Leaving her hometown was a painful decision.
3

adj
Very bad or unpleasant to watch or listen to.

His first attempt at singing was painful to hear.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · causing physical pain. agonizingexcruciatingsore hurtful

3 adj · very bad or unpleasant to... awful

More achesomeaching achy griefful hurt hurty painedpainfilledrawsmartfulsmarting

Opposites

achelessagreeablepain-freepainless pleasantunaching

Word family

Forms painfulness

Derived forms nonpainfuloverpainfulpainfullypainfulnessprepainfulunpainful

Related forms agonizing

Appears in

Phrases (3)

See all

Etymology

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

paynful Middle English *kʷey- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# painful

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈpeɪn.fl̩/
**Frequency rank:** 3050

## Meanings
1. Causing physical pain.
2. Causing emotional distress or unhappiness.
3. Very bad or unpleasant to watch or listen to.

## Examples
- The swollen tooth made it painful for her to eat.
- Leaving her hometown was a painful decision.
- His first attempt at singing was painful to hear.

## Synonyms
- achesome
- aching
- achy
- griefful
- hurt
- hurty
- pained
- painfilled
- raw
- smartful
- smarting
- sore

## Antonyms
- acheless
- agreeable
- pain-free
- painless
- pleasant
- unaching

## Derived Forms
- nonpainful
- overpainful
- painfully
- painfulness
- prepainful
- unpainful

## Related Forms
- agonizing

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: paynful
- Root: *kʷey-

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

## AI Etymology
Painful comes from Middle English paynful, peinful, peynful, paynefull, peynefull, equivalent to pain + -ful. Compare Danish pinefuld (“painful”). The historical chain includes Middle English paynful and Proto-Indo-European *kʷey-. Modern senses include causing physical pain and causing emotional distress or unhappiness. The wider word family includes derivatives such as nonpainful, overpainful, painfully, painfulness, prepainful, and unpainful and related forms such as agonizing.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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