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

Oversteering was another pain point, and Verstappen felt like the car was getting worse with each lap. — Madeline Coleman, New York Times, 28 July 2026

Rajasekharan said Cleo addresses these pain points with AI-native anomaly detection that continuously analyzes activity. — Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 23 July 2026

Every customer service call or chat tells you what customers think about your products, where the greatest pain points are and what opportunities exist to better serve them. — Anna Convery, Forbes.com, 23 July 2026

Licensing remains a pain point for the brand, with revenues down. — Joe Bobowicz, Vogue, 17 July 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