painful

[ peyn-fuhl ]
/ ˈpeɪn fəl /
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adjective

affected with, causing, or characterized by pain: a painful wound; a painful night; a painful memory.
laborious; exacting; difficult: a painful life.
Archaic. painstaking; careful.

Origin of painful

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at pain, -ful

SYNONYMS FOR painful

1 distressing, torturing, agonizing, tormenting, excruciating.
2 arduous.
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OTHER WORDS FROM painful

Words nearby painful

pain-pleasure principle, paine, paine, thomas, pained, painesville, painful, painkiller, painless, pains, painstaking, paint

Words related to painful

distressing, tedious, troublesome, hurtful, dire, excruciating, distasteful, hard, arduous, terrible, severe, unpleasant, uncomfortable, awful, agonizing, harrowing, difficult, biting, burning, caustic

Example sentences from the Web for painful

British Dictionary definitions for painful

painful
/ (ˈpeɪnfʊl) /

adjective

causing pain; distressing a painful duty
affected with pain a painful leg
tedious or difficult
informal extremely bad a painful performance

Derived forms of painful

painfully, adverb painfulness, noun