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# painful

«painful» in Mova's school dictionary: **causing pain or hurting** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (painful, more painful, most painful)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Painful means causing pain or hurting. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#m1)

2) Painful means making you feel sad, upset or embarrassed. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#m2)

3) Painful can mean very hard or slow to watch or do. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In health and first-aid lessons pupils describe painful injuries (a painful knee, a painful bee sting) and tell an adult when something is painful. In feelings lessons a painful memory or a painful goodbye. Phrases: a painful injury, painful to watch, painfully slow, painful memory.

### examples

- My sprained ankle was very painful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#x1)
- A bee sting can be painful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#x2)
- Tell the nurse where it is painful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#x3)
- Saying goodbye to our dog was painful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#x4)
- It was painful to watch our team lose. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#x5)
- The splinter was small but painful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#x6)
- The scene of past sufferings revives painful memories. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/#x7)

### note

Adjective from «pain» + «-ful» (one l). Adverb: painfully. Opposite: painless. Do not confuse «painful» (it hurts you) with «in pain» (you are hurting): «My knee is painful» / «I am in pain».

### In the corpora

- [The bullet ant has one of the most painful insect stings known, and the pain can last for many hours.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/157-the-amazon-forest-floor/8/)
- [The bullet ant of South America has one of the most painful stings of any insect.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/238-ants-colonies-queens-farmers-and-living-bridges/13/)
- [Losing a job is painful and frightening, so bosses, newspapers and governments reach for soft words when they talk about it.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/0/)
- [Biting nails and picking the skin around them can let germs in and cause painful infections.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/77-hair-nails-and-ears/22/)
- [Rubbing an eye with dirty hands can scratch it or carry germs into it, causing a painful infection.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/78-eyes-nose-and-the-toilet/20/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «painful» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/painful/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.