Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
no pain, no gain

no pain, no gain

1 4.2
To work hard or accept some pain to reach a worthwhile goal
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : sin dolor no hay ganancia
  • Many athletes believe in the saying no pain, no gain as they push through tough training sessions.

Examples

  • But, as I said to Wasyl: no pain, no gain.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • To achieve her fitness goals, she reminded herself that no pain, no gain is the mantra of success.

  • The coach always emphasized that no pain, no gain; hard work is necessary to improve your skills.

Synonyms

to spare no effort
vsno pain, no gain
2 3.9

Do everything possible to achieve something

emphasizes long suffering and steady toil rather than brief maximum exertion
no guts, no glory
vsno pain, no gain
  • Informal
1 7.7

You must be brave and take risks to succeed

highlights hard work and suffering rather than risk or daring
no rose without a thorn
vsno pain, no gain
8.1

Every good thing has some problems

focuses on active effort and suffering needed to obtain value

Antonyms

immediate gratification
3 5.5

To get pleasure or a reward right away instead of waiting

easy street
  • Informal
3 5.1

A situation when a person has enough money and no money problems

Surface Forms

no pain, no gain main

Morphology

no + pain, + no + gain

The proverb's meaning is directly inferable from its parts: 'no pain' (no suffering) and 'no gain' (no benefit), conveying that without effort or hardship one will not achieve reward. This straightforward negation + noun/comparison pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can readily deduce the intended meaning.

Etymology

No pain, no gain comes from exercise and training, where people often feel sore muscles after hard practice. The idea is that without pain, meaning hard work or sore muscles, you will not get gain, meaning better strength or skill, so it now means 'you must work hard to get results'.