adv
Meaning 1
In a painful manner; as if in pain.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- I limped painfully down the stairs.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
painfully
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ˈpeɪnfəli/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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CMU ARPABET: P EY1 N F AH0 L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adv
Meaning 2
Badly; poorly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
Examples
- That was the most painfully sung rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon” that I’ve ever heard.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adverb
Meaning 3
unpleasantly
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- his ignorance was painfully obvious
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: distressingly
Antonyms: none provided
adverb
Meaning 4
in or as if in pain
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- she moved painfully forward
- sorely wounded
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: sorely
Antonyms: painlessly
History
Etymology
From Middle English peinfully, paynefully, equivalent to painful + -ly.
Across languages
Translations
18 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: боле́знено (bolézneno) — in a painful manner
- Catalan: dolorosament — in a painful manner
- Esperanto: pene — in a painful manner
- Finnish: kivuliaasti — in a painful manner
- Finnish: tuskallisesti — in a painful manner
- French: douloureusement — in a painful manner
- French: péniblement — in a painful manner
- Galician: dolorosamente — in a painful manner
- German: schmerzhaft — in a painful manner
- Hungarian: fájdalmasan — in a painful manner
- Italian: dolorosamente — in a painful manner
- Polish: boleśnie — in a painful manner
- Portuguese: dolorosamente — in a painful manner
- Russian: боле́зненно (boléznenno) — in a painful manner
- Russian: бо́льно (bólʹno) — in a painful manner
- Russian: мучи́тельно (mučítelʹno) — in a painful manner
- Spanish: dolorosamente — in a painful manner
- Swedish: plågsamt — in a painful manner