painfulness
noun
Simple meaning
Being tedious, of requiring great care.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
paynfuhlnuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpeɪnfəlnəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The state or quality of being painful, of causing pain.
“She feared the painfulness of childbirth.”
The state or quality of being tedious, of requiring great care.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Typical Use
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The state or quality of being painful, of causing pain.
Used this way, painfulness is a common word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
“She feared the painfulness of childbirth.”
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “painfulness of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: painfulness of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use painfulness
- “She feared the painfulness of childbirth.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.