pain point

noun

plural pain points

: a persistent or recurring problem (as with a product or service) that frequently inconveniences or annoys customers

When you're in an established market, you have an established customer; their needs and pain points are clearly laid out on your competitors' review sites.

—Billy Polson

Customer service, which has been a pain point of bigger banks for years, is also improving in that it's getting faster and requires little from you.

—Chris Welch

broadly : something that is a recurring source of trouble, annoyance, or distress

One generation's parenting gospel often becomes another's pain point.

—Lynda Lin Grigsby

Meanwhile, ironing is a pain point with her boyfriend because she loves the look of a crisply pressed men's shirt. "He never irons his shirts and it drives me crazy," she [Elyse Moody] says.

—Jura Konicus

Examples of pain point in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Make The Return To The Office Easier One of the biggest pain points for talent post-Covid is coming back to the office. —Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 27 May 2026

Common digital health problems older adults face The research points to several pain points that will feel familiar to many older adults. —Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 27 May 2026

Those category expansions aren’t driven by a common technology, but rather by an acute understanding of consumer pain points and how to solve them. —James Manso, Footwear News, 26 May 2026

Why does that pain point exist? —Preston Fore, Fortune, 20 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1986, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for pain point

• adjoint
• anoint
• appoint
• checkpoint
• conjoint
• disjoint
• endpoint
• gunpoint
• midpoint
• nonpoint
• pinpoint
• standpoint