var. pain point, refers to a notable source of difficulty, friction, or discomfort, which requires special attention to address or will otherwise be a focus of work, as in: “Agreeing on the new voting structure has been the biggest pressure point in this deal”; can be a means of alluding to unpleasant challenges in a way that sounds dispassionate and impersonal; correctly recognizing and mitigating pressure points is an important condition for successfully achieving a project’s objectives, and conversely misidentifying or ignoring them can derail one’s efforts