smarting vs twinge

smarting

noun
  • A sensation that smarts or stings. 

adj
  • Experiencing emotional pain or embarrassment. 

  • Painful, sore. 

twinge

noun
  • A pinch; a tweak; a twitch. 

  • A sudden sharp pain. 

verb
  • To have a sudden, sharp, local pain, like a twitch; to suffer a keen, darting, or shooting pain. 

  • To affect with a sharp, sudden pain; to torment with pinching or sharp pains. 

  • To pull with a twitch; to pinch; to tweak. 

How often have the words smarting and twinge occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )