irritation
noun
Simple meaning
Troubling or annoying someone.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihrihtayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪɹɪˈteɪʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The psychological state of being irritated or annoyed
The act of irritating or annoying.
A thing or person that annoys.
The act of troubling or annoying someone
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.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The psychological state of being irritated or annoyed
Used this way, irritation is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use irritation
- “Any food produced irritation of the stomach.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
The state of being vexed, annoyed, or irritated.
The psychological state of being irritated or annoyed.
A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state.
Quality, state or condition of being tender.
The act of troubling or annoying someone.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.