painful

[peyn-fuhl]

adjective

1. affected with, causing, or characterized by pain.

   a painful wound; a painful night; a painful memory.

   Synonyms: excruciating, agonizing

2. laborious; exacting; difficult.

   a painful life.

   Synonyms: arduous
   Antonyms: easy

3. Archaic.,  painstaking; careful.

painful

/ ˈpeɪnfʊl /

adjective

1. causing pain; distressing

   a painful duty

2. affected with pain

   a painful leg

3. tedious or difficult

4. informal,  extremely bad

   a painful performance

Other Word Forms

• painfully adverb
• painfulness noun
• overpainful adjective
• overpainfully adverb
• overpainfulness noun
• unpainful adjective
• unpainfully adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of painful¹

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

Example Sentences

For a long time, I had fantasies of solving this problem, of connecting them, of redeeming this painful rift.

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“Ultimately, though potentially painful, it will be a very good thing, in the end, for the U.S. A.”

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Another painful hitch: When Betancur consolidated his loans to help qualify for loan forgiveness, his unpaid interest was added to the principal, pushing his balance to over $300,000.

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"If the United States had just deported him to Jamaica in the first place, that would already have been a very difficult and painful adjustment for him and his family," Unger said.

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In many ways, this one was the most painful, and not only because Boone said repeatedly in recent weeks that he believed this was the most talented squad he had ever helmed.

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Related Words

• agonizing 
• arduous 
• awful 
• difficult 
• dire 
• distasteful 
• distressing www.thesaurus.com
• excruciating 
• hard 
• harrowing 
• heart-wrenching 
• hurtful 
• severe 
• tedious 
• terrible 
• troublesome 
• uncomfortable 
• unpleasant