irritation

Borrowed from Middle French irritation, from Latin irrītātiō, from irrītāre, present active infinitive of irrītō (“I excite”)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

irritation (countable and uncountable, plural irritations)

1. The act of irritating or annoying

   What irritation causes you to be so moody?

2. The state of being irritated
   • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 172:

     Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.

3. The act of exciting, or the condition of being excited to action, by stimulation; -- as, the condition of an organ of sense, when its nerve is affected by some external body; especially, the act of exciting muscle fibers to contraction, by artificial stimulation; as, the irritation of a motor nerve by electricity; also, the condition of a muscle and nerve, under such stimulation.
4. A condition of morbid excitability or oversensitiveness of an organ or part of the body; a state in which the application of ordinary stimuli produces pain or excessive or vitiated action.

• irritative
• irritant

• irritate

• irritation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• irritation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• IPA^(key): /i.ʁi.tas.jɔ̃/

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• Rhymes: -ɔ̃
• Homophone: irritations

irritation f (plural irritations)

1. Irritation (all senses).

• “irritation” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).