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

Slow starts, Karl-Anthony Towns’ inconsistent offensive involvement and disjointedness on both ends of the floor have been pain points for this Knicks team all season under new head coach Mike Brown. —Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 1 Apr. 2026

Maritime traffic disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly a fifth of the world's oil normally passes through, remains the pain point for global energy supplies. —ABC News, 31 Mar. 2026

Many companies are still drowning in data across disparate systems, a pain point Workiva is designed to address, Larson said. —Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 31 Mar. 2026

Communication breakdowns, budget misallocations, and poor partner integration are common pain points that can derail even the most brilliant creative concepts. —Jason Phillips, USA Today, 27 Mar. 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