Abdominal pain Abdominal pain can be crampy, achy, dull, intermittent or sharp. The terms stomach ache and stomach cramps are nonmedical terms often used to describe pain in the mid- or upper abdominal area, even though it is not the case that the (smooth) muscles of the stomach or the abdomen have cramps. Stomach pain is another layperson term commonly used to refer to abdominal pain. Abdominal symptom Pain