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painful

Pronunciation: /ˈpeɪn.fl̩/

The English word “painful” has 5 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental.
  2. Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person).
  3. Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious.
  4. Painstaking; careful; industrious.
  5. Very bad, poor.

Etymology

From Middle English paynful, peinful, peynful, paynefull, peynefull, equivalent to pain + -ful. Compare Danish pinefuld (“painful”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.