Irritate

How to spell irritate

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce irritate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does irritate mean?

1. verbTo make someone feel annoyed, impatient, or angry.
2. verbTo cause soreness, redness, or inflammation in a part of the body.

Irritate in a sentence

• Constant interruptions during meetings irritate the whole team.

• Harsh soap can irritate sensitive skin within minutes.

• Loud music from the flat upstairs can irritate even patient neighbours.

• Dust and pollen often irritate the eyes during the summer months.

Where does irritate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb irritare, meaning 'to excite, provoke, or stir up', whose past participle stem irritat- gave English the spelling that ends in -ate. The Romans used irritare for rousing animals, urging on a fight, or generally working someone into an agitated state, so the idea of stirring something up was there from the start. English adopted it in the sixteenth century, first in the sense of provoking or vexing a person, and the meaning soon broadened to cover physical inflammation, as when a substance stirs up redness or soreness in the skin or eyes. The doubled r in the Latin original is the key to the modern spelling trap, since the single t and the silent stress on the first syllable tempt writers to drop one r. A useful memory hook is that 'irritate' shares its restless, stirring sense with the related word 'irritable'.

How the word is built

• irrit- (from Latin irritare: to provoke or excite)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)