EN

Synonyms for sting

38 synonyms
1 antonym
2 meanings

verb
noun

Most common

pain hurt bite prick twinge

Synonyms by meaning

Verb

1. Bite

bite, hurt, pain, prick, goad, wound, irritate, fire, nettle, pique, prickle, provoke, move, point, inflame, stir, rile, spur, stimulate, afflict, incense, ache

Other

twinge, smart, stick

Noun

1. Confidence trick

confidence trick, hustle, con, confidence game, flim-flam, con game, bunco

Other

stinger, edge, pang, born, sounder, aculeus

Antonyms

All antonyms of sting →

Definitions

v. 1
To hurt, usually by introducing poison or a sharp point, or both.
n. 1
A bump left on the skin after having been stung.
Look at this nasty hornet sting: it's turned blue!

Related words

Word family: stingbull stingray stingy
Phrases: bee sting

Forms

Plural: stings → hustles, cons, flim-flams, buncos…

Example sentences

pain By and large, women can bear pain better than men.
hurt I don't want to hurt Tom, but I will if I have to.
bite Snakes don't usually bite if they're not provoked.
prick I now have the ability to be a pretentious prick.
twinge At that moment, Felix's knee started to twinge a bit.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
sting		rising
pain		rising
hurt		rising
bite		rising
prick		rising
twinge		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: con¹
4 letters: fire², move¹, born¹, pain¹, hurt¹, edge¹, bite¹, stir¹, spur¹, ache¹, pang¹, goad¹, rile¹
5 letters: point¹, smart¹, stick¹, wound¹, prick¹, pique¹, bunco
6 letters: hustle², nettle², twinge¹
7 letters: provoke², incense², stinger², inflame², sounder², afflict², prickle, aculeus
8 letters: irritate³
9 letters: stimulate³

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (fire² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: piquer
Italiano: pungere
Deutsch: stechen