painfulness

Questions about painfulness

What is another word for painfulness?

It depends which painfulness you mean. In the sense “emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid”, the synonyms are pain. Across all 2 senses there are 2 distinct synonyms, and they are not interchangeable with each other — this page lists them under the sense each one belongs to.

What is the opposite of painfulness?

WordNet records no antonym for painfulness. Antonymy in WordNet is a relation between specific word forms rather than between concepts, so it is recorded only where lexicographers judged the pairing direct. An absence here means none was recorded, not that none can be imagined.

Why are the synonyms for painfulness split into groups?

Because painfulness carries 2 recorded senses and each has its own set of substitutes. A single flat list would put words from unrelated meanings side by side with nothing to tell them apart, which is exactly how a writer picks the wrong one. The grouping comes from WordNet's synsets, not from an editorial judgement of ours.

Where do the synonyms for painfulness come from?

From Princeton University's WordNet, a lexical database maintained by lexicographers since 1985. A synonym here means a word form that shares a synset with this word — a set of forms interchangeable in one recorded context. Nothing on this page is generated by a language model.

Other views of painfulness

• Full entry for painfulnessAll 2 senses, with examples, usage labels, syllables and pronunciation.
• Rhymes for painfulnessWhether this word can be rhymed at all — it is not in the pronouncing dictionary.
• Thesaurus homeHow WordNet synsets work, and the collections built for synonym work.