1
as in sore
causing or feeling bodily pain
a very painful toothache her broken arm was too painful for her to go on the trip
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in harsh
hard to accept or bear especially emotionally
it's been very painful to accept that my father is gone forever
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of painful
Holding her in my arms was both the most beautiful and the most painful moment of my life.
—
Maria Morava, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 May 2025
On the Tuesday, May 20, episode of Today with Jenna & Friends, the 43-year-old anchor spoke with her guest co-host and longtime friend Savannah Guthrie about a painful part of her childhood.
—Rachel McRady, People.com, 20 May 2025
The alternative — a world in which the United States and China no longer engage in trade — could be economically painful and destabilizing.
—Alan Rappeport, New York Times, 10 May 2025
Appearance: The condition starts as small, extremely painful blisters on your shins (and sometimes your arms).
—Sherri Gordon, Health, 9 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for painful
Maria Morava, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 May 2025
On the Tuesday, May 20, episode of Today with Jenna & Friends, the 43-year-old anchor spoke with her guest co-host and longtime friend Savannah Guthrie about a painful part of her childhood.
—Rachel McRady, People.com, 20 May 2025
The alternative — a world in which the United States and China no longer engage in trade — could be economically painful and destabilizing.
—Alan Rappeport, New York Times, 10 May 2025
Appearance: The condition starts as small, extremely painful blisters on your shins (and sometimes your arms).
—Sherri Gordon, Health, 9 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for painful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for painful
Adjective
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Asking for fairness One lingering sore spot around remote work is the disparity between different state workers.—
William Melhado,
Sacbee.com,
16 May 2025
-
Rage, fatigue, mood swings, memory loss, hot flashes, itchy ears, inability to sleep, loss of libido, hair thinning, depression, weight gain, sore knees, night sweats, incontinence.—
Katia Riddle,
NPR,
15 May 2025
Adjective
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Though Nicole reserves her harshest jabs for Jorgeous, the real heat is between Tina and Mistress.—
Chris Feil,
Vulture,
23 May 2025
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Padilla had harsh comments for the president and the GOP in a statement Thursday after the House vote.—
David Lightman,
Sacbee.com,
23 May 2025
Adjective
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Somebody Somewhere is tiny: a gorgeous, introspective, intimate story about a woman with devastatingly mundane problems whose chief obstacle is her own aching sense of grief and dislocation.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
9 Dec. 2024
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In this novel about the shape-shifting nature of love, Parsons captures Kit’s grief in aching and honest terms.—
Annabel Gutterman,
TIME,
6 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Scheifele’s emotional and inspirational decision to play mere hours after his father’s unexpected death — to play for his dad, to play because of his dad — ended in cruel fashion, with Scheifele helpless in the penalty box.—
Mark Lazerus,
New York Times,
18 May 2025
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At first the program seems to be benign, but Hayakawa’s film steadily reveals how the policy thrives on the cruel capitalist tenet that people are disposable.—
Lovia Gyarkye,
HollywoodReporter,
17 May 2025
Adjective
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In court proceedings in the years to follow, many of Gabriel’s family members, including his siblings Virginia and Ezequiel, testified about the torturous abuse the child experienced at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend.—
Yasmeen Hamadeh,
People.com,
24 May 2025
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Smith's lawyers filed a lawsuit along with eight other death row inmates challenge Tennessee’s new protocol, saying there is a high risk of torturous death.—
Fernando Cervantes Jr,
USA Today,
23 May 2025
Adjective
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After two years…of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation therapy, of surgery, excruciating pain, the incredible amount of prescription drugs, and all the fervent prayers, my incredible, loving wife succumbed to the aggressive HER2 Triple-Negative breast cancer.—
Clarence Schmidt,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
13 May 2025
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Adolescence examines, in almost excruciating detail, a parent’s worst nightmare.—
Lily Ford,
HollywoodReporter,
10 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Though Hunt Wynorski’s (Nick Zano) actual death happens off-screen, his pained panic at being trapped underwater by the suction pull of a public pool’s drain is an agonizing sequence, culminating in the gnarly visual of a blood-and-guts fountain.—
Gayle Sequeira,
Vulture,
16 May 2025
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Because Voyager is so incredibly distant, the team faced an agonizing 23-hour wait for the radio signal to travel all the way back to Earth.—
Victoria Corless,
Space.com,
15 May 2025
Adjective
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Where Silverman radically departs from Strindberg’s bitter play is in their portrait of Tekla, who is a spikily delightful self-starter instead of the idiot-monster of the original.—
Helen Shaw,
New Yorker,
22 May 2025
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Still, Levi isn’t bitter and blames the reporter for trying to use Gunn to publicly shame him.—
Tatiana Siegel,
Variety,
22 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Painful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/painful. Accessed 29 May. 2025.
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