Although considerable research has been conducted to identify children's and adolescents' language of pain, research is lacking regarding a method to quantify the pain quality described by this language. Three descriptive studies involving 1223 children, aged 8-17 years, were conducted in school and hospital settings. The aims were to develop and examine the validity and reliability of a word list for measuring pain quality that was free of age, gender, and ethnic biases. A word list with 43 words was developed and resulted in sensory, affective, evaluative, and total scores that correlated with pain location and pain intensity scores (r = 0.19-0.44; P less than or equal to 0.01). Pain quality scores decreased over time in a postoperative pain model. Test-retest reliability of the word list scores was high (r = 0.78-0.95; P less than 0.001). This word list was revised and resulted in a word list with 56 words relatively free of gender, ethnic, and developmental biases. Additional research is needed to assess the psychometric properties of this word list in pediatric populations experiencing different pain syndromes.