Entry Word: painful

Function: adjective

Meaning: 1 causing or feeling bodily pain <her broken arm was too painful for her to go on the trip>

Synonyms aching, hurting, nasty, sore

Related Words damaging, harmful, hurtful, injurious; raw, tender; bleeding, burning, chafing, cramping, festering; itching, nagging, pinching, pricking, prickling, smarting, stinging; inflamed, swollen; threatening, wounding

Near Antonyms curative, healing, helping, remedial

Antonyms painless

2 hard to accept or bear especially emotionally <itʼs been very painful to accept that my father is gone> — see bitter 2