agitated
Americanadjective
Usage
What does agitated mean? To feel agitated is to feel anxious, bothered, or worried. The verb agitate means to make someone feel this way. It can also mean to shake something up, stir it up, or cause it to move around roughly, as in The storm is agitating the water, stirring up huge waves. The adjective agitated can also be used to describe something that has been stirred up in this way. The noun agitation can refer to the feeling of being agitated, as in There is a lot of agitation among the employees who have not yet been paid. Example: The cable news channel blaring in the waiting room makes me really agitated—they really shouldn’t have that around people who are about to get their blood pressure taken.
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Someone who is agitated is visibly upset. If you have ever walked into a room and instantly been asked, "What's wrong?" you probably looked agitated. The verb agitate means "to shake up." So someone who is agitated has been shaken up by something — disturbing news, a careless driver who nearly caused a huge accident, or just a very long, very bad day. Agitated can also describe being activated, or fired up about something. For example, a political cause might be losing steam until an event like a rally gets everyone agitated all over again.
Vocabulary lists containing agitated
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 5
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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Emotions on Display
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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.
Paramount and other groups, including cinema chain owners and some Hollywood unions, have agitated for a settlement to curtail months of uncertainty over whether the deal will go through.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Hundreds of people crammed into the school gym that April evening, and the debate over Point Reyes agitated into a low boil.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
I feel guilty he's become agitated and distressed.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
During Reconstruction, first-wave feminists agitated for the 14th Amendment to not just remedy the stain of slavery, but to eliminate inequality in all its forms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
Gray rose to his haunches, agitated, and shared the behavior he had seen: A human turning away a starving neighbor, acting as if there were no food in his larder when it was full.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
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.
