pang
/ˈpæŋ/US/ˈpeɪ̯ŋ/
pang noun: a paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; a feeling of sudden and transitory agony; a throe. Also the simple past of ping.
Noun
pang (plural pangs)
- A paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; a feeling of sudden and transitory agony; a throe.
- War[wick]. See how the pangs of death do make him grin. / Sal[isbury]. Diſturbe him not, let him paſſe peaceably.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- He is knight dubb'd with vnhatche'd Rapier, and on carpet conſideration, but he is a diuell in priuate brall, soules and bodies hath he diuorc'd three, and his incenſement at this moment is ſo implacable, that ſatisfaction can be none, but by pangs of death and ſepulcher: Hob, nob, is his word...c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- A sudden sharp feeling of an emotional or mental nature, as of joy or sorrow.
- He had not gone far, when coming on towards him he beheld the portly gentleman, who had walked into his counting-house the day before, and said, "Scrooge and Marley's, I believe?" It sent a pang across his heart to think how this old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but he knew what...1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 158–159
- He was startled with a piece of information which gave him such an exquisite pang of delight that he could hardly keep the usual quiet of his demeanor.1867 February, [Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.], “The Guardian Angel”, in The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics, volume XIX, number CXII, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields...
Verb
pang (third-person singular simple present pangs, present participle panging, simple past and past participle panged)
- To cause to have great pain or suffering; to torment, to torture.
- Yet if that quarrell, Fortune, to diuorce / It from the bearer, 'tis a ſufferance, panging / As ſoule and bodies ſeuering.1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
- And perhaps a not altogether false little story could be written about a man who never visited those most dear to him, because it panged him so to say good-bye when he had to leave.1919, Christopher Morley, “On Unanswering Letters”, in Mince Pie: Adventures on the Sunny Side of Grub Street, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, page 40
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Pang
Pang (plural Pangs)
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Pang
Pang
- A minor river in Berkshire, England, which flows into the Thames at Pangbourne.
Also used as
pang is also the simple past of ping.
pang meaning in Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam
pang in Hindi
- पैंग
pang in Bengali
- প্যাং
pang in Malayalam
- പാങ്
Examples of pang in a sentence
- But, oh! what pangs torment the deſtin’d heart, / That feels the wound, yet dare not ſhow the dart; / What eaſe could Ovid to his ſorrows give, / Who muſt not ſpeak, and therefore cannot live?a. 1722, Matthew Prior, “Written in Lady Howe’s Ovid’s Epistles”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior, Esq. […], Edinburgh: Printed by...
- "Will it hurt much?"—"No, mine own: / I wish I could bear the pang for both." / "I wish I could bear the pang alone: / Courage, dear, I am not loth."1862, Christina Rossetti, “In the Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857”, in Goblin Market and Other Poems, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire...
- So the Nightingale pressed closer against the thorn, and the thorn touched her heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot through her.1888 May, Oscar Wilde, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, London: David Nutt, […], →OCLC, pages 37–38:
- For Lucifer, as Lord of Fire, was thought to suffer the most terrible pangs whenever the element of fire, over which he presided, was convulsed or agitated.1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 117:
Synonyms of pang
Forms of pang
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pangs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pangs |
| present participle | panging |
| past participle | panged |
| past | panged |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Pangs |
Origin of pang
The origin of the noun is uncertain; it is possibly derived from Middle English *pange, perhaps an altered form of prange, prōnge (“affliction, agony, pain; pointed instrument”) as in prongys of deth (“pangs of death, death throes”), from Anglo-Latin pronga, of unknown origin. Perhaps connected with Middle Dutch prange, pranghe (“instrument for pinching”) (modern Dutch prang (“horse restraint; fetter, neck iron”)), Middle Low German prange (“pole, stake; (possibly) kind of pillory or stocks”), Old English pyngan (“to prick”). The word may thus be related to prong. The verb is derived from the noun.
From: * various Chinese surnames, including Mandarin 龐 /庞 (páng), Cantonese 彭 (paang⁴) and Hokkien 馮 /冯 (pâng) * Khmer បាង (baang).
The name of the river is a back-formation from Pangbourne.
Words formed from pang
Phrases with pang
Words that rhyme with pang
Questions about pang
- What does pang mean?
- Pang means a paroxysm of extreme physical pain or anguish; a feeling of sudden and transitory agony; a throe.
- What is pang in Hindi?
- Pang in Hindi is पैंग. See Pang meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use pang in a sentence?
- But, oh! what pangs torment the deſtin’d heart, / That feels the wound, yet dare not ſhow the dart; / What eaſe could Ovid to his ſorrows give, / Who muſt not ſpeak, and therefore cannot live?
- What part of speech is pang?
- Pang can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce pang?
- Pang is pronounced /ˈpæŋ/.
- What is the plural of pang?
- The plural of pang is pangs.
Words near pang in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pang (page history and authors); Pang (page history and authors); pang (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pang (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pang (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-au-pang.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pang.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pang. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.