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

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour called the US's decision "deeply regrettable and painful", saying it had prevented the Security Council from "playing its rightful role in the face of these atrocities".

From BBC

For the most part, reliving some of the most painful experiences of her early years while shooting didn’t affect Del Valle.

From Los Angeles Times

Leanne Abeyance, 41, from Telford, said she had been left with a painful, infected face and the implants could not be removed due to the infections.

From BBC

“I am resigning from the company Ben and I started back in 1978. This is one of the hardest and most painful decisions I’ve ever made.”

From Salon

He accompanied Álvarez in his painful loss to Terence Crawford Saturday in Las Vegas.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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