Word.ws English Dictionary

pain in the arse

/ˈpeɪn ɪn ði ˌɑːs/

pain in the arse noun: someone or something that is annoying or frustrating.

Noun

pain in the arse (plural pains in the arse)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, sometimes considered vulgar) Someone or something that is annoying or frustrating.
    • You really are a pain in the arse, aren't you (laugh track)? The PM is going up the wall! Hitting the roof! You can't go around making speeches like that.1980 February 25, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “Open Government”, in Yes Minister, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Vic Gould (Edward Jewesbury)
    Synonyms:
    drag

Synonyms of pain in the arse

Forms of pain in the arse

pluralpains in the arse
alternative formpain in the ass

Questions about pain in the arse

What does pain in the arse mean?
Pain in the arse means someone or something that is annoying or frustrating.
What part of speech is pain in the arse?
Pain in the arse is a noun.
How do you pronounce pain in the arse?
Pain in the arse is pronounced /ˈpeɪn ɪn ði ˌɑːs/ (UK).
What is the plural of pain in the arse?
The plural of pain in the arse is pains in the arse.

Words near pain in the arse in the dictionary

  1. pain de campagne
  2. pain de mie
  3. pain disorder
  4. pain in one's arse
  5. pain in one's ass
  6. pain in the arse
  7. pain in the ass
  8. pain in the back
  9. pain in the backside
  10. pain in the bum
  11. pain in the butt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pain in the arse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pain in the arse.wav.

Cite this entry: “pain in the arse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pain_in_the_arse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.