irritability

English

Etymology

From Latin irritabilitās, equivalent to irritable +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪɹɪtəˈbɪlɪti/

• Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

irritability (countable and uncountable, plural irritabilities)

1. 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.

2. (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.

3. (medicine) A condition of morbid excitability of an organ or part of the body; undue susceptibility to the influence of stimuli.

Synonyms

• (state of being irritable): petulance, fretfulness

Derived terms

• hyperirritability
• superirritability

Translations

state or quality of being irritable

• Bulgarian: раздразнителност (bg) f (razdraznitelnost)
• Catalan: irritabilitat (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 應激性 / 应激性 (zh) (yìngjīxìng)

• Esperanto: iritiĝebleco
• French: irritabilité (fr) f
• German: Reizbarkeit (de) f, Empfindlichkeit (de) f, Irritabilität (de) f
• Greek: ευερεθιστότητα (el) f (everethistótita)
• Indonesian: iritabilitas (id)
• Irish: colgaí f, drisíneacht f, frisnéiseacht f, gairge f, greannaitheacht f, lasántacht f, meirg (ga) f, colg m
• Kazakh: тітіркенгіштік (tıtırkeñıştık)
• Macedonian: раздразливост f (razdrazlivost), надразливост f (nadrazlivost)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: irritabilitet m

  Nynorsk: irritabilitet m

• Romanian: iritabilitate (ro) f
• Russian: раздражи́тельность (ru) f (razdražítelʹnostʹ)
• Spanish: irritabilidad (es) f
• Tagalog: pagkatalusaling

References

• 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.