English

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Etymology

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From Latin irritabilitās, equivalent to irritable +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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.

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References

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