irritable
Americanadjective
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easily irritated or annoyed; readily excited to impatience or anger.
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Physiology, Biology. displaying irritability.
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Pathology. susceptible to physical irritation.
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Medicine/Medical. abnormally sensitive to a stimulus.
adjective
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quickly irritated; easily annoyed; peevish
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(of all living organisms) capable of responding to such stimuli as heat, light, and touch
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pathol abnormally sensitive
Related Words
Irritable, testy, touchy, irascible are adjectives meaning easily upset, offended, or angered. Irritable means easily annoyed or bothered, and it implies cross and snappish behavior: an irritable clerk, rude and hostile; Impatient and irritable, he was constantly complaining. Testy describes the same kind of behavior or response, particularly to minor annoyances: always on edge, testy and sharp in response; testy and petulant, resenting any interruption. Touchy emphasizes oversensitivity and readiness to take offense, even when none is intended: especially touchy about any reference to obesity. Irascible means habitually angry or easily aroused to anger: an irascible tyrant, roaring at employees for the slightest error.
Other Word Forms
- irritability noun
- irritableness noun
- irritably adverb
- nonirritable adjective
- nonirritableness noun
- nonirritably adverb
- unirritable adjective
- unirritably adverb
Etymology
Origin of irritable
First recorded in 1655–65; from Latin irrītābilis, equivalent to irrītā(re) “to irritate ” + -bilis -ble
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.
And these foods are linked to a range of chronic health issues, including Type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, certain types of cancer, irritable bowel syndrome and even early death.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 23, 2026
"He went from being confident, energetic, and present to being withdrawn, irritable, forgetful - and he just seemed to be constantly in pain," she said.
From BBC • Feb. 10, 2026
AbbVie cut the list price of Linzess, a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome, by about 50%, to $282 a month.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 29, 2026
He broke the Dutchman again on his opening serve in the second set and moved to 4-2, but it was a struggle and he became noticeably more irritable.
From Barron's • Jan. 24, 2026
The bursar was an elderly, irritable man who became more irritable when he discovered he had to give money to me rather than the other way around.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
