Agony

How to spell agony

5 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce agony

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does agony mean?

1. nounExtreme physical or mental suffering.

Agony in a sentence

• The patient was in agony until the painkillers took effect.

• Waiting for the test results was sheer agony for the whole family.

Where does agony come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Agony comes from the Greek word agonia, which meant a struggle or a contest, and behind that lay agon, the name for a public gathering, especially the athletic or dramatic competitions of ancient Greece. Because such contests demanded fierce physical and mental effort, agonia came to describe the anguish and straining of a struggle rather than the event itself. The sense narrowed further toward mental anguish and, in later religious use, toward extreme bodily suffering. English took the word in the late 1300s by way of Latin agonia and Old French agonie, at first chiefly to describe the mental anguish of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. The same agon root still survives in 'antagonist' (literally one who struggles against you) and in 'protagonist', which is a useful clue that the single g and the -ony ending belong to that old Greek stem.

How the word is built

• agon- (from Greek agon: contest, struggle)
• -y (noun-forming suffix)