painless

English

Etymology

From Middle English paynles, peynlees, equivalent to pain +‎ -less. Compare West Frisian pynleas (“painless”), Dutch pijnloos (“painless”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

painless (comparative more painless, superlative most painless)

1. Free from pain; without pain or trouble.
   • 1924, Don Herold, So Human, page 40:

     There are now washless dishes, painless razors, painless shoes, painless corsets, prepared soups, painless photographs (it used to give you a stiff neck for three days to have your picture taken) […]

2. Not difficult; easy.
   • 1952, Morris McNeil Musselman, Second Honeymoon, page 5:

     At first it seemed like a very painless way to get my work done and I told Milly to let me sleepwrite as much as I liked. We discovered, however, that although my subconscious might lead me to the typewriter, it couldn't make me think.

Synonyms

(free from pain): acheless, pain-free, unaching

Antonyms

• painful

Derived terms

• painlessly
• painlessness

Related terms

• pain-free

Translations

without pain or trouble

• Afrikaans: pynloos
• Arabic: غَيْر مُؤْلِم (ḡayr muʔlim)
• Azerbaijani: ağrısız
• Belarusian: бязбо́льны (bjazbólʹny)
• Bulgarian: безболезнен (bg) (bezboleznen)
• Catalan: indolor
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無痛 / 无痛 (zh) (wútòng)

• Czech: bezbolestný
• Danish: smertefri (da)
• Dutch: pijnloos (nl)
• Esperanto: sendolora
• Estonian: valutu
• Finnish: kivuton (fi)
• French: indolore (fr)
• Georgian: უმტკივნეულო (umṭḳivneulo)
• German: schmerzlos, schmerzfrei (de)
• Greek: ανώδυνος (el) (anódynos) άπονος (el) (áponos)

  Ancient: ἀνάλγητος (análgētos), ἄλυπος (álupos)

• Hungarian: fájdalommentes (hu)
• Italian: indolore (it)
• Japanese: 無痛 (ja) (むつう, mutsū)
• Lithuanian: neskausmingas, beskausmis
• Manx: neuphiandagh
• Maori: kore mamae, tangatanga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: smertefri

  Nynorsk: smertefri

• Polish: bezbolesny (pl)
• Portuguese: indolor
• Romanian: nedureros (ro), fără durere
• Russian: безболе́зненный (ru) (bezboléznennyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: безболан

  Roman: bezbolan (sh)

• Spanish: sin dolor, indoloro
• Swedish: smärtfri (sv)
• Turkish: ağrısız (tr), acısız (tr)
• Ukrainian: безбо́лісний (uk) (bezbólisnyj)
• West Frisian: pynleas

References

• “painless”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Espinals, Spinales, spaniels