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

"They gave us exercises, stretches to do. By this point I couldn't do any of them. It was too painful," she says.

Read more on BBC

The company has won more favor with investors since then, but the last few sessions have been painful.

Read more on MarketWatch

A painful defeat by Musetti on Tuesday, in which De Minaur held a 5-3 lead in the deciding set before losing four consecutive games to concede the match, had rocked his confidence.

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Macron, France's first president born after the colonial era, has always promised to work on remembrance and reconciliation against the background of the two countries' painful shared history.

Read more on Barron's

“All of my weight was in the saddle…it was painful for a week.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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