🧠 Practical intelligence 🤕 To hurt 😣 A sharp pain

smarts

1 5.8

A sharp physical pain or a hurt feeling

noun
/smɑrts/

: dolor agudo

After falling off his bike, the smarts in his knee made him wince.

Examples

He tried to hide the smarts of her harsh words, but it was obvious he was hurt.
The smarts from the paper cut lingered longer than she expected.
I felt a sharp smarts in my side after the fall.
The smarts from the bee sting lasted for hours.
After falling off his bike, the smarts in his knee made him wince.
The smarts from the paper cut lingered longer than she expected.
The smarts from the bee sting lasted for hours.

Synonyms

sting

vssmarts

32 4.2

A sharp feeling of sadness or hurt after an unkind act

also applies to sharp physical pain as well as mental hurt

painful sensation

vssmarts

1 4.8

A sharp uncomfortable feeling in the body when something hurts

is broader and also includes sharp mental hurt or distress

smart

vssmarts

1 8.5

A sudden sharp pain that stings

includes both sharp physical pain and mental hurt or distress

smartness

vssmarts

8.2

A sharp, stinging pain from a wound or burn

covers both sharp physical pain and feelings of mental distress

Antonyms

comfort

288 1.0

A feeling of physical ease and being free from pain

ease

238 1.0

A state of comfort and freedom from worry

Compounds

street smarts

Informal

11 5.6

Knowing how to stay safe and avoid danger in a city

How Painful

agony

139 3.9

smarts

1 5.8

ache

86 1.3

twinge

18 4.9

Surface Forms

smarts plural

Morphology

smarts = smart (opaque) = smart + s

Formally 'smart' + plural '-s', but the noun sense 'smart' (pain) is uncommon and not predictable from the more familiar meaning 'clever', so learners will not infer the sense.

Etymology

Smarts (pain) comes from an old English word smeart meaning 'pain' or 'sting', so it keeps the idea of a quick, sharp hurt; when you feel the 'smarts' from a paper cut you feel that small, stinging pain.