Agitated

How to spell agitated

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce agitated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does agitated mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling or showing anxiety, distress, or nervous restlessness.
2. verbPast tense of agitate: stirred or shook something, or stirred up feeling about an issue.

Agitated in a sentence

• adjective

  The delayed flight left several passengers visibly agitated at the gate.

• verb

  The machine agitated the laundry until every stain lifted.

• adjective

  He grew agitated whenever the conversation turned to money.

• verb

  The campaigners agitated for safer roads outside the school.

Where does agitated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb agitare, meaning 'to drive', 'to stir up' or 'to keep in motion', which was itself a frequentative form of agere, 'to drive, do or act'. Because agitare implied repeated or vigorous driving, it carried a sense of constant disturbance from the start, and that same agere root underlies a whole family of English words such as 'act', 'agent' and 'agile'. English adopted 'agitate' in the sixteenth century, first in the concrete sense of shaking or moving something physically, as when liquid is stirred. From there the meaning broadened to the mental sphere, describing a mind that has been stirred up into anxiety or excitement. The participle 'agitated' settled into use both as the past tense of the verb and as an adjective for someone visibly troubled, and the single central 't' (with the stress falling on the first syllable, AG-i-tated) is the spot writers most often second-guess.

How the word is built

• agit- (from Latin agitare: to drive, stir, set in motion)
• -ate (verb suffix)
• -ed (past tense / adjective ending)