Word.ws English Dictionary

sting

/ˈstɪŋ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Midlands/ˈstɪŋɡ/

sting noun: a bump left on the skin after having been stung.

sting: a bump left on the skin after having been stung
Image: Pollinator, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

sting (plural stings)

  1. A bump left on the skin after having been stung.
    • Look at this nasty hornet sting: it's turned blue!
  2. A puncture made by an insect or arachnid in an attack, usually including the injection of venom.
    • She died from a bee sting.
  3. A pointed portion of an insect or arachnid used for attack.
    Synonyms:
    stinger
  4. A sharp, localized pain primarily on the epidermis.
    • That plant will give a little sting if you touch it.
    Synonyms:
    burn
  5. A sharp-pointed hollow hair seated on a gland which secretes an acrid fluid, as in nettles.
  6. The thrust of a sting into the flesh; the act of stinging; a wound inflicted by stinging.
    • the lurking serpent's mortal stingc. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  7. A police operation in which the police pretend to engage in criminal activity in order to catch a criminal.
    • The criminal gang was caught after a successful sting.
    • Shepard: I'm taking you in, Jax.
      Turian Bodyguard: It's a sting. Bastard set us up.
      Jax: What the hell are you playing at?2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel
  8. A short percussive phrase played by a drummer to accent the punchline in a comedy show.
  9. A brief sequence of music used in films, TV, and video games as a form of scenic punctuation or to identify the broadcasting station.
    Synonyms:
    sounder
  10. A support for a wind tunnel model which extends parallel to the air flow.
    • The balance is mounted externally on top of the wind tunnel test section. A sting connects the balance to the model.2001, T. J. Mueller, Fixed and Flapping Wing Aerodynamics for Micro Air Vehicle Applications, page 118
  11. (figuratively) The harmful or painful part of something.
    • The ſting of death is ſinne, […]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 15:56, column 1
    • Better is 20 R-R5, threatening 21 KR-R1. This action would compel exchanges and reduce the sting of Black's attack.1962 September, I. A. Horowitz, “Readers' Games”, in Chess Review
  12. A goad; incitement.
    • O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space, / In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC
  13. The concluding point of an epigram or other sarcastic saying.

Verb (1)

sting (third-person singular simple present stings, present participle stinging, simple past stung or (rare, dialectal) stang, past participle stung)

  1. (ambitransitive) To hurt, usually by introducing poison or a sharp point, or both.
  2. (transitive) To puncture with the stinger.
    • A mosquito stung me on the arm.
  3. (figuratively, intransitive, sometimes) To hurt, to be in pain (physically or emotionally).
    • My eyes are stinging from the chopped onions.
    • My hand stings after knocking on the door so long.
    Synonyms:
    smart
  4. (figuratively) To cause harm or pain to.
    • I thought I could park in front of the hotel, but they stung me for five pounds!

Noun (2) capitalized: STing

STing (uncountable)

  1. Storytelling in the context of a tabletop role-playing game, especially one published by White Wolf.

Verb (2) capitalized: STing

STing

  1. (gerund, participle, present) present participle and gerund of ST

sting meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sting in Hindi

bump on skin
दंश dañś, डंक ḍaṅk
puncture
डंक ḍaṅk
of an insect or arachnid: to puncture with the stinger
डसना ḍasnā

sting in Tamil

ஸ்டிங்

sting in Marathi

स्टिंग

sting in Urdu

سٹنگ, اسٹنگ
More languagesFewer languages
sting in Bengali
স্টিং, দংশন
sting in Telugu
కుట్టు kuṭṭu
sting in Malayalam
കുത്തുക kuttuka
sting in Kannada
ಸ್ಟಿಂಗ್
sting in Punjabi
ਸਟਿੰਗ
sting in Gujarati
સ્ટિંગ
sting in Odia
ଷ୍ଟିଂ
sting in Nepali
स्टिङ, स्टिंग, स्टिंङ
sting in Tagalog
nasakitan, kinagat
sting in Arabic
طَعَنَ ṭaʕana, لَسَعَ lasaʕa
sting in Malay
sengatan, sengat
sting in Persian
گزش gazeš, گزیدن gazidan
sting in Thai
กัด gàt, ต่อย dtɔ̀i
sting in Vietnamese
đốt, chích

Examples of sting in a sentence

  • Using some tweezers, she worked the bee sting out of her hand.
  • Once he ran out of appeals, he knew he would soon feel the sting of the whip.
  • Using some tweezers, he worked the bee sting out of his hand.

All 40 example sentences with sting

Synonyms of sting

Forms of sting

Noun
pluralstings
Verb
third-person singular presentstings
present participlestinging
paststung
past participlestung
past (dialectal, rare)stang

Past tense of sting: stung

Plural of sting: stings

Origin of sting

From Middle English styng, sting, stynge, stenge, from Old English sting, stincg (“a sting, stab, thrust made with a pointed instrument; the wound made by a stab or sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stingaz; possibly also from Old English stynġ, from Proto-Germanic *stungiz.

From Middle English stingen, from Old English stingan, from Proto-Germanic *stinganą. Compare Swedish and Icelandic stinga.

Words formed from sting

Phrases with sting

Words that rhyme with sting

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sting

What does sting mean?
Sting means a bump left on the skin after having been stung.
What is sting in Hindi?
Sting in Hindi is दंश (dañś), डंक (ḍaṅk), डसना (ḍasnā). See Sting meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sting?
Sting can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sting?
Sting is pronounced /ˈstɪŋ/.
What is the plural of sting?
The plural of sting is stings.

Words near sting in the dictionary

  1. stindies
  2. Stinebaugh
  3. Stinebaughs
  4. Stiner
  5. Stiners
  6. sting
  7. sting in the tail
  8. sting like a bee
  9. stingable
  10. stingaree
  11. stingarees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sting (page history and authors); STing (page history and authors); sting (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sting (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sting (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sting (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sting (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sting (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sting (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sting (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sting (Nepali, 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-us-sting.ogg.

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