PAIN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pain mean? 

• PAIN (noun)
  The noun PAIN has 5 senses:

1. a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder

2. emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid

3. a somatic sensation of acute discomfort

4. a bothersome annoying person

5. something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness

  Familiarity information: PAIN used as a noun is common.

• PAIN (verb)
  The verb PAIN has 2 senses:

1. cause bodily suffering to and make sick or indisposed

2. cause emotional anguish or make miserable

  Familiarity information: PAIN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PAIN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A symptom of some physical hurt or disorder

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

hurting; pain

Context example:

the patient developed severe pain and distension

Hypernyms ("pain" is a kind of...):

symptom ((medicine) any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pain"):

odynophagia (severe pain on swallowing due to a disorder of the esophagus)

metralgia (pain in the uterus)

orchidalgia (pain in the testes)

pang (a sharp spasm of pain)

pang; sting (a mental pain or distress)

photalgia; photophobia (pain in the eye resulting from exposure to bright light (often associated with albinism))

costalgia; pleuralgia; pleurodynia (pain in the chest caused by inflammation of the muscles between the ribs)

podalgia (foot pain)

proctalgia (pain in the rectum)

referred pain (pain that is felt at a place in the body different from the injured or diseased part where the pain would be expected)

renal colic (sharp pain in the lower back that radiates into the groin; associated with the passage of a renal calculus through the ureter)

smart; smarting; smartness (a kind of pain such as that caused by a wound or a burn or a sore)

sting; stinging (a kind of pain; something as sudden and painful as being stung)

stitch (a sharp spasm of pain in the side resulting from running)

rawness; soreness; tenderness (a pain that is felt (as when the area is touched))

thermalgesia (pain caused by heat)

throb (a deep pulsating type of pain)

torment; torture (unbearable physical pain)

ulalgia (pain in the gums)

urodynia (pain during urination)

nephralgia (pain in the kidney (usually felt in the loins))

ache; aching (a dull persistent (usually moderately intense) pain)

agony; excruciation; suffering (a state of acute pain)

arthralgia (pain in a joint or joints)

burn; burning (pain that feels hot as if it were on fire)

causalgia (a burning pain in a limb along the course of a peripheral nerve; usually associated with skin changes)

colic; gripes; griping; intestinal colic (acute abdominal pain (especially in infants))

chest pain (pain in the chest)

chiralgia (a pain in the hand that is not traumatic)

distress (extreme physical pain)

dysmenorrhea (painful menstruation)

glossalgia; glossodynia (pain in the tongue)

growing pains (pain in muscles or joints sometimes experienced by children and often attributed to rapid growth)

keratalgia (pain in the cornea)

labor pain (pain and discomfort associated with contractions of the uterus during labor)

mastalgia (pain in the breast)

melagra (rheumatic or myalgic pains in the arms or legs)

meralgia (pain in the thigh)

myalgia; myodynia (pain in a muscle or group of muscles)

neuralgia; neuralgy (acute spasmodic pain along the course of one or more nerves)

Derivation:

pain (cause bodily suffering to and make sick or indisposed)

pain (cause emotional anguish or make miserable)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

pain; painfulness

Context example:

the pain of loneliness

Hypernyms ("pain" is a kind of...):

feeling (the experiencing of affective and emotional states)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pain"):

distress; hurt; suffering (psychological suffering)

hurt; suffering (feelings of mental or physical pain)

mental anguish (sustained dull painful emotion)

unpleasantness (the feeling caused by disagreeable stimuli; one pole of a continuum of states of feeling)

growing pains (emotional distress arising during adolescence)

Antonym:

pleasure (a fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience)

Derivation:

pain (cause emotional anguish or make miserable)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A somatic sensation of acute discomfort

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

pain; pain sensation; painful sensation

Context example:

as the intensity increased the sensation changed from tickle to pain

Hypernyms ("pain" is a kind of...):

somaesthesia; somatesthesia; somatic sensation; somesthesia (the perception of tactual or proprioceptive or gut sensations)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pain"):

phantom limb pain (pain felt by an amputee that seems to be located in the missing limb)

twinge (a sharp stab of pain)

mittelschmerz (pain in the area of the ovary that is felt at the time of ovulation (usually midway through the menstrual cycle))

Derivation:

pain (cause bodily suffering to and make sick or indisposed)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A bothersome annoying person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

nuisance; pain; pain in the neck

Context example:

that kid is a terrible pain

Hypernyms ("pain" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

annoyance; bother; botheration; infliction; pain; pain in the ass; pain in the neck

Context example:

he's not a friend, he's an infliction

Hypernyms ("pain" is a kind of...):

negative stimulus (a stimulus with undesirable consequences)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pain"):

nuisance ((law) a broad legal concept including anything that disturbs the reasonable use of your property or endangers life and health or is offensive)

irritant; thorn (something that causes irritation and annoyance)

plague (an annoyance)

Derivation:

pain (cause emotional anguish or make miserable)

• PAIN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they pain    ... he / she / it pains   
Past simple: pained   
Past participle: pained   
-ing form: paining   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause bodily suffering to and make sick or indisposed

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

ail; pain; trouble

Hypernyms (to "pain" is one way to...):

hurt (give trouble or pain to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pain"):

break out; erupt; recrudesce (become raw or open)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

pain (a somatic sensation of acute discomfort)

pain (a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause emotional anguish or make miserable

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

anguish; hurt; pain

Context example:

It pains me to see my children not being taught well in school

Hypernyms (to "pain" is one way to...):

discomfit; discompose; disconcert; untune; upset (cause to lose one's composure)

Cause:

suffer (experience (emotional) pain)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pain"):

break someone's heart (cause deep emotional pain and grief to somebody)

agonise; agonize (cause to agonize)

try (give pain or trouble to)

excruciate; rack; torment; torture (torment emotionally or mentally)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The bad news will pain him

Derivation:

pain (something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness)

pain (emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid)

pain (a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder)

 Context examples 

Joe came next, yelping with pain.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He was lying with his head and shoulders out of bed, in an uncomfortable attitude, half resting on the box which had cost him so much pain and trouble.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is not good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina's eyes and cause her pain; but it is the truth.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Talking wearied her, faces troubled her, pain claimed her for its own, and her tranquil spirit was sorrowfully perturbed by the ills that vexed her feeble flesh.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She sprang away, yelling with pain, and while he took delight in the smell of burning flesh and hair, he watched her shaking her head and growling wrathfully a score of feet away.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The supposition did not pain her.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I was not sniffling, though my face might well have been drawn and twitching from the pain.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was the highest satisfaction to her to believe Captain Wentworth not in the least aware of the pain he was occasioning.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

And the pain in your chest?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was with pain that Catherine could speak at all; and it was only for Eleanor's sake that she attempted it.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)