Meaning & use
great pain
Last updated
Meanings
phraseuncountable
A very strong feeling of physical hurt.
Grammar: Uncountable: say 'great pain' or 'a great deal of pain'. Do not say 'a great pain' for physical hurt.
Patterns
- be in great pain
- cause someone great pain
- suffer great pain
After the fall, he was in great pain and could not stand.
The injury caused her great pain for several weeks.
Doctors gave him medicine to ease the great pain in his back.
phraseuncountable
A very strong feeling of sadness or emotional suffering.
Grammar: Also uncountable when it means sadness: 'Her death caused great pain to the family.'
Patterns
- cause someone great pain
- be in great pain
- feel great pain
Losing his best friend caused him great pain.
She hid her great pain behind a cheerful smile.
Common combinations
- be in great pain
- The patient was in great pain until the nurse arrived.
- cause someone great pain
- The accident caused the whole family great pain.
- suffer great pain
- Many animals suffer great pain if they are not treated kindly.
- ease the pain
- The warm bath helped ease the pain in her muscles.
Synonyms and how they differ
- agony
- Agony is even stronger and suggests extreme, almost unbearable pain; 'great pain' is a little more neutral.
- distress
- Distress often means emotional suffering and worry, not physical hurt.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: great pain or pains?
great pain vs pains
'Pains' often means efforts, as in 'take pains to do something well'; it is not the same as 'great pain'.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'great pain' correctly?
Choose one answer.
C uses the uncountable phrase correctly. A wrongly adds 'a'. B uses 'pains' for physical hurt, which is not the usual uncountable use. D treats it as plural with 'are', which is wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “great pain”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.