One who, or that which, bothers; state of perplexity or annoyance; embarrassment; worry; disturbance.

ETYM Old Eng. peine, French peine, from Latin poena, penalty, punishment, torment, pain.
(Homonym: pane).
1. A bodily sensation of acute discomfort; SYN. painful sensation.
2. A symptom of some physical hurt or disorder; SYN. hurting.
3. Emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid; SYN. painfulness.
4. A bothersome annoying person; SYN. pain in the neck, nuisance.
Sense that gives an awareness of harmful effects on or in the body. It may be triggered by stimuli such as trauma, inflammation, and heat. Pain is transmitted by specialized nerves and also has psychological components controlled by higher centers in the brain. Drugs that control pain are known as painkillers or analgesics.
A pain message to the brain travels along the sensory nerves as electrical impulses. When these reach the gap between one nerve and another, biochemistry governs whether this gap is bridged and may also either increase or decrease the attention the message receives or modify its intensity in either direction. The main type of pain transmitter is known simply as “substance p”, a neuropeptide concentrated in a certain area of the spinal cord. Substance P has been found in fish, and there is also evidence that the same substances that cause pain in humans (for example, bee venom) cause a similar reaction in insects and arachnids (for instance, spiders).
Since the sensation of pain is transmitted by separate nerves from that of fine touch, it is possible in diseases such as syringomyelia to have no sense of pain in a limb, yet maintain a normal sense of touch. Such a desensitized limb is at great risk of infection from unnoticed cuts and abrasions. + prikaži više

ETYM French pénalité. Related to Penal.
1. A payment required for not fulfilling a contract.
2. The disadvantage or painful consequences of an action or condition.

ETYM Colloq. or Slang.
The act of punishing; SYN. penalty, penalization.

In law, the judgment of a court stating the punishment to be imposed following a plea of guilty or a finding of guilt by a jury. Before a sentence is imposed, the antecedents (criminal record) and any relevant reports on the defendant are made known to the judge and the defense may make a plea in mitigation of the sentence.