From Middle English peyne, payne, from Old French - and Anglo-Norman peine, from Latin poena, from Ancient Greek ποινή.

• enPR: pān, IPA: /peɪn/

pain

1. (countable and uncountable) An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.

   The greatest difficulty lies in treating patients with chronic pain.

   I had to stop running when I started getting pains in my feet.

   1. (now, usually, in the plural) The pangs or sufferings of childbirth, caused by contractions of the uterus.
2. (uncountable) The condition or fact of suffering or anguish especially mental, as opposed to pleasure; torment; distress

   In the final analysis, pain is a fact of life.

   The pain of departure was difficult to bear.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XIV, page 22 ↗:

     And I should tell him all my pain,
     ⁠And how my life had droop’d of late,
     ⁠And he should sorrow o’er my state
     And marvel what possess’d my brain; […]

3. (countable, from pain in the neck) An annoying person or thing.

   Your mother is a right pain.

4. (uncountable, dated) Suffering inflicted as punishment or penalty.

   You may not leave this room on pain of death.

   • 1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal: […], London: […] Jo. Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC ↗, Act IV, page 105 ↗:

     Seb[astian]. […] [M]y duty, then, / To interpoſe; on pain of my diſpleasure, / Betwixt your Swords[.] / Dor[ax]. On pain of Infamy / He ſhould have diſobey'd.

5. (mostly, in the plural) Labour; effort; great care or trouble taken in doing something.

• (an annoying person or thing) pest
• See also Thesaurus:pain

• pleasure

• pained
• painful
• painfully
• painless
• painlessly
• painlessness

• French: douleur, mal
• German: Schmerz
• Italian: dolore
• Portuguese: dor
• Russian: боль
• Spanish: dolor

• French: douleur, peine
• German: Schmerz
• Italian: sofferenza, difficoltà
• Portuguese: dor
• Russian: боль
• Spanish: pena

• French: casse-pied, casse-couilles (vulgar)
• Italian: rompicoglioni, rompiscatole
• Portuguese: mala, chato
• Russian: зану́да

• Italian: pena
• Portuguese: pena
• Spanish: pena

pain (pains, present participle paining; simple past and past participle pained)

1. (transitive) To hurt; to put to bodily uneasiness or anguish; to afflict with uneasy sensations of any degree of intensity; to torment; to torture.

   The wound pained him.

2. (transitive) To render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress; to grieve.

   It pains me to say that I must let you go.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To inflict suffering upon as a penalty; to punish.
4. (intransitive, India) To feel pain; to hurt.

   Please help me, I am paining hard.

• German: schmerzen
• Portuguese: doer em, machucar
• Russian: причинять боль
• Spanish: apenar, doler

• Italian: addolorare, affliggere
• Portuguese: doer em
• Russian: му́чить
• Spanish: apenar

• Portuguese: castigar
• Russian: му́чить
• Spanish: castigar, condenar

From Middle English payn, from Old French pain.

pain (plural pains)

1. (obsolete, cooking) Any of various breads stuffed with a filling.

   gammon pain; Spanish pain

Various origins:

• A variant of Paine.
• Borrowed from Spanish Paín.

1. Surname.

Backformation from pain

pain

1. Acronym of pan-assay interference compound