growing pangs

Meanings

1. 1nounpluralliteraryrare

   Sharp feelings of pain, especially sudden ones, imagined as coming with growth or change.

   Grammar: Used in the plural; a single one would be 'a pang', but the phrase is fixed in the plural.

   Patterns

   • growing pangs of something
   • feel growing pangs

   The novel describes the growing pangs of a young woman leaving home.

   He felt growing pangs of doubt as the train pulled away.

2. 2nounpluralfigurativerare

   Difficulties that appear while a new activity, country, or organization is developing.

   Grammar: Plural and used with a plural verb: 'the growing pangs are...'. The far more common form is 'growing pains'.

   Patterns

   • the growing pangs of something
   • suffer growing pangs

   The young company went through growing pangs before it found its market.

   Every new democracy has its growing pangs.

Common combinations

the growing pangs of youth

The memoir is full of the growing pangs of youth.

feel growing pangs

She felt growing pangs of guilt about moving abroad.

suffer growing pangs

The project suffered growing pangs in its first year.

growing pangs of doubt

Growing pangs of doubt troubled him before the wedding.

Synonyms and how they differ

growing pains

The standard, everyday phrase for both real childhood aches and early difficulties; almost always the better choice.

teething problems

British and informal, used only for early faults in a new system or machine, not for personal feelings.

birth pangs

Literary and stronger, describing the painful start of something major, such as a nation.

Word family

pang noun

A sudden sharp feeling of pain or emotion.

grow verb

To become larger or develop.

growth noun

The process of increasing in size or importance.

Commonly confused: growing pangs or growing pains? growing pangs or pangs?

Practice

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