Meaning & use
Irritability
Last updated
The tendency to become easily annoyed, angered, or agitated.
See it in a sentence
Lack of sleep often increases irritability during the day.
The doctor asked whether the patient had noticed any unusual irritability lately.
A note on using this word
In biology, "irritability" also describes a living organism's capacity to respond to external stimuli, a much older scientific sense of the word.
Words with a similar meaning
crankinesstestinesstouchiness
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
Another way to use it
2. noun
Biology: the capacity of a living organism or cell to respond to a stimulus.
Irritability is one of the defining characteristics of living cells.
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