painful

The word “painful” means causing physical or emotional pain. In plain terms, hurting physically or emotionally, or, casually, just really bad.

“Painful” is pronounced PAYN-fl (/ˈpeɪn.fl̩/ in IPA).

Here is “painful” used in a sentence: “The burn was extremely painful.”

Words with a similar meaning to “painful” include achesome, aching, achy, raw, hurt and hurty.

The opposite of “painful” — its antonyms — are acheless, agreeable, pain-free, painless and pleasant.

“Painful” is an adjective.

“Painful” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Painful” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: causing physical or emotional pain.

Painful means causing physical or emotional pain and can describe an event, memory, or body part. Sore usually describes a specific area of the body that hurts, often from strain or injury, so a sore muscle is painful, but a painful goodbye is not described as sore.

In its informal sense, 'painful' means very bad or embarrassing in quality, as in 'a painful attempt at a joke'. Here it describes something awkward to watch or listen to rather than something that physically hurts.

Despite the shared root, they mean very different things. Painful means causing pain or being poor in quality, while painstaking means done with great care and effort. A painstaking task is careful and thorough, not necessarily hurtful.

Yes. 'Painful' covers both physical and emotional pain, so you can have a painful injury and a painful memory. The emotional sense is common in phrases like 'a painful decision' or 'a painful truth'.