pain
/ˈpeɪ̯n/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.03 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The condition or fact of suffering or anguish especially mental, as opposed to pleasure; torment; distress
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The greatest difficulty lies in treating patients with chronic pain."
- "I had to stop running when I started getting pains in my feet."
- "When the pains are every five minutes and quite strong or the cervix is five cm. dilated along with regular and strong pains, the mother is given a block anesthesia of 1 cc. of 1:200 nupercaine, 1 cc. of 10 per cent dextrose with .05 cc. of 1:1000 adrenalin."
- "In the final analysis, pain is a fact of life."
- "The pain of departure was difficult to bear."
- "And I should tell him all my pain, And how my life had droop’d of late, And he should sorrow o’er my state And marvel what possess’d my brain; […]"
Etymology
From Middle English peyne, payne, from Old French and Anglo-Norman peine, paine, from Latin poena (“punishment, pain”), from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “bloodmoney, weregild, fine, price paid, penalty”), from Proto-Hellenic *kʷoinā́, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷoynéh₂ (“payment”) (whence also Proto-Slavic *cěnà (“price”)). Doublet of peine. Compare Danish pine, Norwegian Bokmål pine, German Pein, Dutch pijn, Afrikaans pyn. See also pine (the verb). Partly displaced native Old English sār (whence Modern English sore).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpeɪ̯n/
- British English: /ˈpeɪ̯n/