aggravation
Americannoun
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aggravations
plural
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an increase in intensity, seriousness, or severity; act of making worse.
an aggravation of pain.
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the state of being aggravated.
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something that causes an increase in intensity, degree, or severity.
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annoyance; exasperation.
Johnny causes me so much aggravation!
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a source or cause of annoyance or exasperation.
Johnny's such an aggravation to her!
Usage
See aggravate.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of aggravation
1475–85; < Medieval Latin aggravātiōn- (stem of aggravātiō ); see aggravate, -ion
Explanation
An aggravation is something that makes a situation or condition worse. Getting hot and sweaty might result in an aggravation of your poison ivy rash. An aggravation of symptoms in a hospital patient is a bad sign — things are becoming more serious. Another, less formal way to use the noun aggravation is to mean something that annoys or bothers you. You might say, "Having to take the bus is such an aggravation — I'd much rather drive my car." The Latin root of aggravation is aggravare, "make heavier," or "increase in oppressiveness."
Vocabulary lists containing aggravation
Good Grief!: Grav, Griev
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Life Is So Good
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Old Yeller
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Sweeping contentious issues under the rug and relegating them to wanton aggravation is one major way of letting these same topics fester.
From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2026
To do that you have to put up with the aggravation, the late-night calls or the dumb questions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025
"Is it worth the aggravation to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for?" snarled Liam.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2025
The charges had been said to have had a connection with serious organised crime, but this aggravation was deleted by prosecutors at the end of the evidence.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2025
I opted to put us both on the road almost immediately after we got there, to save both of us the pointless aggravation and strain to try and fit into a foreign mainstream group.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
Monitoring, litigating, and tax administration are king-size aggravations that nobody talks about because at the plan-sponsor level it’s called job security.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
Such are the occasional aggravations and annoyances that bedevil the tony section of Los Angeles that Harris calls home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2024
But such aggravations do not drive her political desires.
From New York Times ● Aug. 6, 2023
That’s plenty fast enough to prevent video buffering and other aggravations of slow connections.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 6, 2022
And in fact the afternoon took the form of an ever-growing pile of aggravations.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
