Word.ws English Dictionary

smarting

/ˈsmɑɹtɪŋ/

smarting adjective: painful, sore. Also the present participle and gerund of smart.

Adjective

smarting (comparative more smarting, superlative most smarting)

  1. Painful, sore.
    • My arm is still smarting from where the ball hit it.
  2. (figuratively) Experiencing emotional pain or embarrassment.
    Synonyms:
    ashamed, pained

Noun

smarting (countable and uncountable, plural smartings)

  1. A sensation that smarts or stings.
    • Strong they are; for they trample upon our light, the penalties of laws divine and human; yea, and the smartings of our own conscience.1714, Thomas Halyburton, Natural Religion Insufficient, and Revealed Religion Necessary, to Man's Happiness in his Present State

Also used as

smarting is also the present participle and gerund of smart.

Synonyms of smarting

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of smarting

Adjective
comparativemore smarting
superlativemost smarting
Noun
pluralsmartings

Origin of smarting

From Middle English smertyng, smertinge, from Old English smeortung, smertung (“smarting, itching”), equivalent to smart + -ing.

Words formed from smarting

Phrases with smarting

Questions about smarting

What does smarting mean?
Smarting means painful, sore.
What part of speech is smarting?
Smarting can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce smarting?
Smarting is pronounced /ˈsmɑɹtɪŋ/.

Words near smarting in the dictionary

  1. Smartha
  2. Smarthas
  3. Smartian
  4. smartie
  5. smarties
  6. smarting
  7. smarting off
  8. smartingly
  9. smartings
  10. smartish
  11. Smartism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smarting (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “smarting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smarting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.