irritability
English
editEtymology
editFrom Latin irritabilitās, equivalent to irritable + -ity.
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /ˌɪɹɪtəˈbɪlɪti/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
editirritability (countable and uncountable, plural irritabilities)
- The state or quality of being irritable; quick excitability.
- irritability of temper
- 2025 March 29, Kristen Rogers, “Over half of US states are trying to eliminate food dyes. Here’s what you can do now”, in CNN[1]:
- Blue No. 1 and yellow No. 6 may also be toxic to some human cells. And as little as 1 milligram of yellow dye No. 5 may cause irritability, restlessness and sleep disturbances for sensitive children.
- (physiology) A natural susceptibility, characteristic of all living organisms, tissues, and cells, to the influence of certain stimuli, response being manifested in a variety of ways.
- 1800, Erasmus Darwin, Phytologia, Or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening:
- We find a renitency in ourselves to ascribe life and irritability to the cold and motionless fibres of plants.
- 1830 September 23, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Logic”, in H[enry] N[elson] C[oleridge], editor, Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], published 1835, →OCLC, page 111:
- There is growth only in plants; but there is irritability, or, a better word, instinctivity, in insects.
- (medicine) A condition of morbid excitability of an organ or part of the body; undue susceptibility to the influence of stimuli.
Synonyms
edit- (state of being irritable): petulance, fretfulness
Derived terms
editTranslations
editstate or quality of being irritable
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References
edit- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “irritability”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “irritability”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
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