The initial stages in the development of an Arabic pain inventory are described. 279 Kuwaiti adults were asked to nominate as many words as they could think of to describe pain. A dictionary translation of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) was prepared, and subjects judged which of these represent acceptable pain descriptions in Arabic. From these sources, a list of Arabic pain adjectives was compiled. 67 university undergraduates classified each word as sensory, evaluative or affective, and rated the pain intensity connoted. Over 100 Arabic pain words were identified. Ratings revealed that, just as in English, pain is a multidimensional concept. The pain intensity rank ordering of many groupings in the MPQ was preserved when the Arabic translations were rated, even though the Arabic adjectives were not presented in the format of the MPQ. Theoretical and practical problems encountered in producing a fully equivalent pain inventory in another language are discussed.