pain

1 a sharp unpleasant sensation usually felt in some specific part of the body the child was crying because of a pain in her knee Synonyms ache, pang, prick, shoot, smart, sting, stitch, throe, tingle, twinge Related Words discomfort, distress, soreness, tenderness; affliction, agony, anguish, misery, sufferance, suffering, torment, torture; inflammation, sore, swelling; damage, detriment, harm, hurt, injury; backache, bellyache, charley horse, colic, complaint, earache, gripe, headache, stomachache, toothache Near Antonyms comfort, ease, easiness

2 a state of great suffering of body or mind a sprained ankle caused him great pain for a week Synonyms affliction, agony, anguish, excruciation, hurt, misery, distress, rack, strait(s), torment, torture, travail, tribulation, woeRelated Words discomfort; cross, crucible, trial; heartache, heartbreak, joylessness, sadness, sorrow, unhappiness; emergency, pinch; asperity, difficulty, hardship, rigor; ache, pang, smarting, soreness, stitch, throe, twinge; danger, jeopardy, troubleNear Antonyms comfort, consolation, solace; alleviation, assuagement, ease, relief; peace, security; well-being

3 pains pl  strict attentiveness to what one is doing take pains to be sure that you don't damage anything while moving the furniture Synonyms carefulness, closeness, conscientiousness, heed, heedfulness, meticulosity, meticulousness, pains, scrupulousnessRelated Words advertence, advertency, attention, concentration, focus, observance, observation; alertness, mindfulness, vigilance, watchfulness; dutifulness, irreproachability, irreproachableness, punctiliousness, responsibility; bother, effort, painstaking, trouble; exactness, particularity, precisionNear Antonyms inadvertence, inadvertency, inattention, inobservanceAntonyms heedlessness, inattentiveness, negligence

4 pains pl  the active use of energy in producing a result she was at pains to reassure us that everything would be fine Synonyms elbow grease, exertion, expenditure, labor, pains, sweat, trouble, while, workRelated Words drudgery, grind, slog, strain, toil, travail; dint, energy; force, might, muscle, power, puissance; attempt, endeavor, essay, fling, go, pass, shot, stab, trial, try, whackNear Antonyms adroitness, ease, facility, fluency, smoothness; dormancy, idleness, inaction, inactivity, indolence, inertia, languor, laziness, quiescence

5 one who is obnoxiously annoying sometimes that child, who apparently never tires of asking questions, can be such a pain Synonyms annoyance, annoyer, bother, gadfly, gnawer, nudnik (also nudnick), nuisance, persecutor, pest, tease, teaserRelated Words headache; harrier, heckler, interrupter (also interruptor); hassle, plague; harasser, molester, tormentor (also tormenter), torturerNear Antonyms charmer, smoothy (or smoothie); comforter, solacer, soother