Other forms: agonies
Agony is pain so severe that you can think of nothing else. In agony, the agony of waiting, an agonising decision.
It works for mental suffering as readily as physical. The Greek agon was a contest, and agony first named the struggle of an athlete — so the word travelled from competition through anguish to pain. An agony aunt answers problem letters.
1nounagonyPain so severe that you can think of nothing else.
“He lay on the ground in agony, holding his broken leg.”
agony is a pain.
Greek agonia means a struggle, from agon, a contest. The word first named an athlete's struggle, then mental anguish, then pain.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eǵ-
Ancient Greek
ἀγωνία — emulation, competition, struggle
English, today
agony
Built from
14th century, via Old French - and Latin - from Ancient Greek ἀγωνία (“emulation, competition, struggle”), from ἀγών (“contest”). Specifically of the struggle that precedes death (mortal agony) from the 1540s. by surface analysis, agon + -y. The sense of "extreme pain" from c. 1600.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA