painful
/ˈpeɪn.fl̩/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.32 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "In a 2008 case report from India, doctors described removing a giant tonsillolith that was making it painful for a young patient to swallow."
- "A rackingly painful disease that affects the joints and finally cripples, it is caused by an imbalance of uric acid in the system."
- "The men bestow their times in fishing, hunting, warres, and such manlike exercises, scorning to be seene in any woman-like exercise, which is the cause that the women be very painefull, and the men often idle."
- "To all these painful labourers Johnson shewed a never-ceasing kindness, so far as they stood in need of it."
- "For twenty generations, here was the earthly arena where painful living men worked out their life-wrestle"
- "His violin playing is painful."
Etymology
From Middle English paynful, peinful, peynful, paynefull, peynefull, equivalent to pain + -ful. Compare Danish pinefuld (“painful”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: paynful, *kʷey-
Usage
Inflected Forms
painfuller (comparative)
more painful (comparative)
painfullest (superlative)
most painful (superlative)
painfull (alternative)