sting

1. 1.

   cause a sharp or stinging pain or discomfort

   “The sun burned his face”

   Synonymsbiteburn

   Broaderache

   Narrowernettle
2. 2.

   deliver a sting to

   “A bee stung my arm yesterday”

   Synonymsbiteprick

   Broaderpierce
3. 3.

   saddle with something disagreeable or disadvantageous

   “They stuck me with the dinner bill”

   “I was stung with a huge tax bill”

   Synonymsstick

   Broaderforce
4. 4.

   cause a stinging pain

   “The needle pricked his skin”

   Synonymspricktwinge

   Broaderhurt

   Narrowerprickle
5. 5.

   cause an emotional pain, as if by stinging

   “His remark stung her”

   Broaderhurt

Other forms of sting

plural

stings·

past tense or participle

stung

present participle

stinging·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about sting

What does sting mean?

sting means "a kind of pain; something as sudden and painful as being stung". That is the primary sense; the word has 10 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in sting?

sting has 1 syllable: sting. In IPA it is /ˈstɪŋ/.

What is another word for sting?

Close synonyms include stinging, pang, bite, insect bite, bunco. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is sting a common word?

sting is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.