Pains

How to spell pains

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pains

What does pains mean?

1. nounSensations of physical hurt or aching felt in the body.
2. nounCareful effort or trouble taken to do something well.
3. verbCauses someone distress or sorrow (third person singular).

Pains in a sentence

• noun

  The pains in her lower back kept her awake most of the night.

• noun

  He took great pains to make sure every figure in the report was accurate.

• verb

  It pains me to watch such a fine old house fall into ruin.

• noun

  Sharp pains shot through his chest, so he called the doctor.

• noun

  She went to considerable pains to plan the surprise party down to the last detail.

• verb

  It clearly pains her to admit that the decision was a mistake.

Where does pains come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin poena, which literally meant a penalty, a fine, or a punishment exacted for wrongdoing. Latin had in turn borrowed it from the Greek poine, carrying the same idea of a price paid in retribution. By the time it passed into Old French as peine, the meaning had broadened from legal punishment toward the suffering and hardship that punishment causes, and English took it on in the early 1300s as 'pain'. The older sense of penalty survives in the legal phrase 'on pain of', meaning under threat of a stated penalty, which is a useful reminder of where the word began. The plural 'pains' developed two strands: literal bodily aches, and the figurative idea of trouble taken or effort expended, as in going to great pains over a task. Note that it is a homophone of 'panes', the sheets of glass in a window, which comes from an entirely unrelated Latin root pannus meaning a piece of cloth.

How the word is built

• pain (suffering, from Latin poena: penalty)
• -s (plural/third-person ending)