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Glite Dictionary
birth pangs

birth pangs

1 5.2
Strong repeated pains a woman feels when she is having a baby
  • noun
  • /bɜrθ pæŋz/
: dolores de parto
  • The doctor explained that the birth pangs signified the labor process was starting.

I mean, imagine the birth pangs of this, this birth that's to come, evils trying to wipe out the Jewish people.

Examples

  • As the birth pangs intensified, she focused on breathing through the contractions.

  • When she felt her first birth pangs, she knew it was time to go to the hospital.

  • Late in the evening, Garliad's birth pangs began.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Birth pangs start out easy and far apart, then keep getting progressively stronger and closer together.

    Blog text (12)

  • Birth pangs are painful, intensely so.

    Blog text (14)

Synonyms

labor pains
vsbirth pangs
  • US
1 3.6

Pain a woman feels during childbirth when the womb tightens

are sharper and more recurrent sensations during childbirth
labor pain
vsbirth pangs
  • US
1 3.4

Strong pain in the stomach and lower back when a woman gives birth

refer specifically to repeated sharp episodes rather than general discomfort
uterine contraction
vsbirth pangs
  • Specialized
1 3.6

A strong tightening of the womb muscles that helps push a baby out during labor

are the painful sensations caused by those muscle tightenings during childbirth

Antonyms

relief
440 1.0

A feeling of comfort when pain or worry goes away

How Painful

birth pangs
1 5.2
cramp
77 2.1
ache
92 1.3
discomfort
119 3.2

Surface Forms

birth pangs plural
birth pang singular

Morphology

birth + pang

The meaning 'sharp pains during childbirth' is directly and compositionally built from 'birth' (the event of delivering a baby) and 'pangs' (quick, sharp pains), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the phrase. This is a transparent, cross-linguistically common construction (compare 'labor pains'), making it accessible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The phrase birth pangs comes from the literal pains of birth. A pang is a sudden, sharp pain, so birth pangs means 'the painful contractions during childbirth'.