painful
Americanadjective
-
affected with, causing, or characterized by pain.
a painful wound; a painful night; a painful memory.
- Synonyms:
- excruciating, agonizing
-
laborious; exacting; difficult.
a painful life.
- Synonyms:
- arduous
- Antonyms:
- easy
-
Archaic. painstaking; careful.
adjective
-
causing pain; distressing
a painful duty
-
affected with pain
a painful leg
-
tedious or difficult
-
informal extremely bad
a painful performance
Other Word Forms
- overpainful adjective
- overpainfully adverb
- overpainfulness noun
- painfully adverb
- painfulness noun
- unpainful adjective
- unpainfully adverb
Etymology
Origin of painful
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She then started getting migraines when she was 17 so doctors took her off the pill, which led to "really, really painful" periods.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
Watching the foursome ahead of me putt out, one, then another, each one putting and marking, is so painful.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 5, 2026
“It was painful to throw it away,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2026
“It’s a very painful and hard thing to do,” Kanekar said of deploying FDEs.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 4, 2026
Push myself with slow, painful movements, grabbing the seat in front of me for stability.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
