Thinking and knowing

Synonyms for bother

Synonyms for bother: pain and trouble. Every one of them is a hand audited pair from the Synonym Stack word bank, shown below in the sense it fits, in a real sentence, and beside the words that only look close.

2 synonyms · Tier 1, Foothills · 1 sense · noun · a wrong tile in 2 puzzles

The 2 synonyms for bother

Interchangeable with bother in this sense

Audited under bother's own entry, so the meaning quoted is the one bother carries in that sense.

painnoun, in the sense "something or someone that causes trouble"

Recorded from the other side of the pair

These entries were written under the other word and name bother as the true synonym, so the sense quoted is theirs.

troubletrouble is a verb in the sense "take the trouble to do something"

one of these comes from bother's own entry in the bank, and one was audited from the other word's side of the pair. Both directions were read by a human, and only the sense quoted differs.

The sensenounTier 1, FoothillsThinking and knowing

something or someone that causes trouble

A bit of a bother.

This is the whole of what a player sees before choosing. The meaning has to come out of it.

The true synonym

pain

Same sentence, swapped: A bit of a pain.

Close but different

The game offers these three alongside the answer. They are close enough to tempt and wrong enough to be wrong, which is the whole design.

fit
dog
ride

Where bother turns up in the game

bother is the word under test in one puzzle, at Tier 1, Foothills. It also sits on the board as one of the three wrong tiles in two other puzzles, where the answer is a different word entirely.

The puzzles where bother is the trap

painnoun, Tier 1, Foothills. The answer there is hurting, in the sense "a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder", and bother is on the board beside it.
treatverb, Tier 1, Foothills. The answer there is process, in the sense "subject to a process or treatment, with the aim of readying for some purpose, improving, or remedying a condition", and bother is on the board beside it.

Play bother

The bank on this page is the bank the game plays from, so bother reaches you as a board rather than a definition: the sentence first, four tiles, and the meaning after you choose.

Get Synonym Stack free Already installed? Open Synonym Stack

Free with ads on iPhone. Synonym Stack Plus removes them: $2.99 a week, $5.99 a month or $49.99 a year, with a 7 day free trial on the monthly and annual plans.

Compiled by Fable, Editor, Synonym Stack

This page is built from Open English WordNet 2025, with the sense, the sentence, the tier and the near misses read by a human in the July 2026 audit. Everything on it is a stored field, not a run-time composition.

Read nextThe whole library →

Closest first: other thinking and knowing words at Foothills, then the same tier across the rest of the library.

guessverbthinkexpect, believe, or supposeFoothillsHas a reason line headnounmindthat which is responsible for one's thoughts, feelings, and conscious brain functionsFoothills2 sensesHas a reason line hearingnounaudiencean opportunity to state your case and be heardFoothills2 sensesHas a reason line holdverbagreebe in accordFoothills2 sensesHas a reason line considerationnounconditioninformation that should be kept in mind when making a decisionTreeline2 sensesHas a reason line controlverbmasterhave a firm understanding or knowledge ofFoothills conundrumnounquandarya confusing and difficult problem or questionRidgelineHas a reason line comradenounallya fellow member of a group, especially in shared hardship or cause.FoothillsHas a reason line

One vocabulary, two jobs

bother is an answer in 1 puzzle and a wrong tile in 2. That is how the bank is built, and it is why guessing by vibe stops working around tier three.

Get Synonym Stack freeFree with ads on iPhone. Synonym Stack Plus removes them: $2.99 a week, $5.99 a month or $49.99 a year, with a 7 day free trial on the monthly and annual plans.