The meaning of PAINFUL is feeling or giving pain. How to use painful in a sentence.

Define painful. painful synonyms, painful pronunciation, painful translation, English dictionary definition of painful. adj. 1. Full of or giving pain: a painful shoulder; painful walking.

PAINFUL definition: 1. causing emotional or physical pain: 2. If something is painful to watch or listen to, it is so…. Learn more.

If something such as an illness, injury, or operation is painful, it causes you a lot of physical pain. ...a painful back injury. Sunburn is painful and potentially dangerous.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025 pain•ful (pān′ fəl), adj. affected with, causing, or characterized by pain: a painful wound; a painful night; a …

Anything painful hurts a lot — either physically or emotionally. Your sprained ankle may be painful, but so is your broken heart. When something is physically painful, it hurts your body in …

Definition of painful adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

We can't ignore our country's painful history of slavery. His questions brought up a lot of painful memories. It was painful to watch.

Synonyms for PAINFUL: sore, aching, hurting, damaging, hurtful, injurious, swollen, nasty; Antonyms of PAINFUL: painless, helping, remedial, healing, indolent, curative, sweet, gratifying

• It was so painful to see how frail she had become in just a few months. • His total humiliation was painful to watch. • Jim's knee was still painful where he had fallen on it. painful to the …