different between painful vs acute

English

Alternative forms

• painfull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English paynful, peinful, peynful, paynefull, peynefull, equivalent to pain +? -ful. Compare Danish pinefuld (“painful”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pe?n.f?l/

Adjective

painful (comparative painfuller or more painful, superlative painfullest or most painful)

1. Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental. [from 14th c.]
2. Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person). [from 15th c.]
3. Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious. [from 15th c.]
4. (now rare) Painstaking; careful; industrious. [from 16th c.]
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 142:

     The men bestow their times in fishing, hunting, warres, and such manlike exercises, scorning to be seene in any woman-like exercise, which is the cause that the women be very painefull, and the men often idle.

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, Book 2, Ch. 2

     For twenty generations, here was the earthly arena where painful living men worked out their life-wrestle

5. (informal) Very bad, poor.

   His violin playing is painful.

Synonyms

• (full of pain): doleful, sorrowful, smartful, irksome, annoying
• (requiring labor or toil): laborious, exerting

Antonyms

• (causing pain): painless, painfree

Derived terms

• painfully
• painfulness

Translations

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English ac?te (“of a disease or fever: starting suddenly and lasting for a short time; of a humour: irritating, sharp”), from Latin ac?ta, from ac?tus (“sharp, sharpened”), perfect passive participle of acu? (“to make pointed, sharpen, whet”), from acus (“needle, pin”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?e?- (“sharp”). The word is cognate to ague (“acute, intermittent fever”).

As regards the noun, which is derived from the verb, compare Middle English ac?te (“severe but short-lived fever; of blood: corrosiveness, sharpness; musical note of high pitch”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??kju?t/
• (General American) enPR: ?-kyo?ot?, IPA^(key): /??kjut/
• Rhymes: -u?t

Adjective

acute (comparative acuter or more acute, superlative acutest or most acute)

1. Brief, quick, short.

   Synonyms: fast, rapid

   Antonyms: leisurely, slow
2. High or shrill.

   Antonym: grave
3. Intense, sensitive, sharp.

   Synonyms: keen, powerful, strong

   Antonyms: dull, obtuse, slow, witless
4. Urgent.

   Synonyms: emergent, pressing, sudden
5. (botany) With the sides meeting directly to form an acute angle (at an apex or base).

   Antonym: obtuse
6. (geometry) Of an angle: less than 90 degrees.

   Antonym: obtuse
7. (geometry) Of a triangle: having all three interior angles measuring less than 90 degrees.

   Synonym: acute-angled

   Antonyms: obtuse, obtuse-angled
8. (linguistics, chiefly historical) Of an accent or tone: generally higher than others.
9. (medicine) Of an abnormal condition of recent or sudden onset, in contrast to delayed onset; this sense does not imply severity, unlike the common usage.
10. (medicine) Of a short-lived condition, in contrast to a chronic condition; this sense also does not imply severity.

    Antonym: chronic
11. (orthography) After a letter of the alphabet: having an acute accent.

Derived terms

Related terms

• ague

Translations

Noun

acute (plural acutes)

1. (medicine) A person who has the acute form of a disorder, such as schizophrenia.
2. (linguistics, chiefly historical) An accent or tone higher than others.

   Antonym: grave
3. (orthography) An acute accent (´).

Translations

Verb

acute (third-person singular simple present acutes, present participle acuting, simple past and past participle acuted)

1. (transitive, phonetics) To give an acute sound to.
2. (transitive, archaic) To make acute; to sharpen, to whet.

Translations

References

Further reading

• acute (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• AUTEC, Ceuta

Asturian

Verb

acute

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of acutar

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??ky.t?/

Adjective

acute

1. Inflected form of acuut.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.kyt/
• Homophone: acutes

Adjective

acute

1. feminine singular of acut

Interlingua

Adjective

acute (not comparable)

1. acute

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a?kute/

Adjective

acute

1. feminine plural of acuto

Anagrams

• caute

Latin

Participle

ac?te

1. vocative masculine singular of ac?tus

References

• acute in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• acute in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• acute in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette