Irritation

How to spell irritation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce irritation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does irritation mean?

1. nounA feeling of mild anger or impatience caused by something tiresome.
2. nounInflammation or soreness of a part of the body in reaction to something.

Irritation in a sentence

• The constant noise from upstairs was a daily source of irritation.

• The new soap caused some redness and irritation on her hands.

• There was a note of irritation in her voice as she repeated the instructions.

• The pollen brought on eye irritation that lasted all afternoon.

Where does irritation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb irritare, which meant to excite, provoke, or stir up, and from it came the noun irritatio for a state of provocation. English took the word in the early 1500s, partly through French irritation, to describe both the rousing of anger and, a little later, the inflaming of the body. The double r that trips so many writers is genuine to the Latin source and was never reduced in English. A useful memory hook is that the same irritare root gives us the verb irritate and the adjective irritable, all sharing that doubled r. Over time the medical sense (a sore, inflamed reaction in skin or tissue) grew alongside the everyday emotional sense of mild annoyance.

How the word is built

• irrit- (from Latin irritare: to provoke, annoy)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or action)