Library / English Dictionary

AGONY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain

Example:

the torments of the damned

Synonyms:

agony; torment; torture

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("agony" is a kind of...):

hurt; suffering (feelings of mental or physical pain)

Derivation:

agonal (pertaining to or associated with agony (especially death agonies))

agonise (suffer agony or anguish)

agonise (cause to agonize)

agonist (someone involved in a contest or battle (as in an agon))

agonist (the principal character in a work of fiction)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A state of acute pain

Synonyms:

agony; excruciation; suffering

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("agony" is a kind of...):

hurting; pain (a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "agony"):

throe (severe spasm of pain)

Passion; Passion of Christ (the suffering of Jesus at the Crucifixion)

Derivation:

agonal (pertaining to or associated with agony (especially death agonies))

agonise (suffer agony or anguish)

agonise (cause to agonize)

agonist (someone involved in a contest or battle (as in an agon))

agonize (suffer agony or anguish)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Then he stood, without movement, as before, the stricken wolf rolling in agony behind him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Another had been shot at a loophole in the very act of firing into the house and now lay in agony, the pistol still smoking in his hand.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Then these agonies began swiftly to subside, and I came to myself as if out of a great sickness.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She hurried away, and I saw her afterwards seated amongst the bracken, her back turned towards the multitude, and her hands over her ears, cowering and wincing in an agony of apprehension.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Since he cannot communicate with her direct, he has recourse to the agony column of a paper.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The agony on the shore increased.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

'The window! For heaven's sake shut that window!' roared the Professor from the platform, dancing and wringing his hands in an agony of apprehension.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This, though very undesirable, would be no matter of agony to her.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Roderigo rent his chains asunder manfully, and Hugo died in agonies of remorse and arsenic, with a wild, "Ha! Ha!"

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)