Excruciating

//ɛkˈskɹuːʃiːeɪtɪŋ// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Causing great pain or anguish, agonizing

    "Sagan faced an excruciating dilemma: Should he remain true to his naturalistic philosophy and reject the marrow graft as something acquired by immoral means? Or should he agree to undergo the medical treatment in hope of saving his life"

  2. 2
    Exceedingly intense; extreme

    "When he at last opened his eyes, he was conscious of nothing but an excruciating pain through his temples. He was vaguely aware of unfamiliar surroundings."

Adjective
  1. 1
    extremely painful wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
painfulacuteafflictiveagonisingagonizingagonizing

Example

More examples

"Tom has been in excruciating pain."

Etymology

Present participle of excruciate, from Latin excruciō, from ex- + cruciō (“I torment”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.