pain in the arse
/ˈpeɪn ɪn ði ˌɑːs/
"pain-in-the-arse" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pain in the arse” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Someone or something that is annoying or frustrating.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pain-in-the-arse · pain in the arse · English
pain in the arse · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pain in the arse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpeɪn ɪn ði ˌɑːs/ |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pain in the arse” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pain in the arse is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpeɪn ɪn ði ˌɑːs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Someone or something that is annoying or frustrating.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for pain in the arse, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is pain in the arse, spelled P-A-I-N- -I-N- -T-H-E- -A-R-S-E.
Definition
- 1Someone or something that is annoying or frustrating.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how pain in the arse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You really are a pain in the arse, aren't you (laugh track)? The PM is going up the wall! Hitting the roof! You can't go around making speeches like that.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.