irritability
Americannoun
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irritabilities
plural
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the quality or state of being irritable.
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Physiology, Biology. the ability to be excited to a characteristic action or function by the application of some stimulus.
Protoplasm displays irritability by responding to heat.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of irritability
From the Latin word irrītābilitās, dating back to 1745–55. See irritable, -ity
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:
"Now, what's going into phase III studies is a non-antipsychotic for irritability in autism. It's completely different."
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
In turn, this can cause poor sleep, irritability and decision fatigue, she says.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
It also fueled his irritability and erratic behavior, she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Kids under the age of 10 with a high amount of daily screen time face significant developmental repercussions like irritability, a lack of executive functioning, poor sleep, and, critically, poor social and emotional competence.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026
Hungry Joe was a throbbing, ragged mass of mobile irritability.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
In spasmodic affections of various kinds, in asthma, in periodic headaches, in general restlessness and muscular irritabilities its good effects are often signal.
From New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers by Edward Pollock Anshutz
The dim stir of chemical atoms towards the axis of crystal form, the trance-like life of plants, the animal troubled by strange irritabilities, are stages which anticipate consciousness.
From Appreciations, with an Essay on Style by Walter Pater
False pride, constant whining, or insupportable irritabilities gradually force them into a dreary class apart.
From The Living Present by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
The extremities of other canals have been shewn to possess correspondent sensibilities, or irritabilities, as the two ends of the urethra, and of the common gall-duct.
From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin
His sudden access to wealth, far from allaying the irritabilities of his nature, had increased and exaggerated them all.
From Sir Jasper Carew His Life and Experience by Charles James Lever
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.
