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irritability. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
irritability, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
irritability in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
irritability you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Latin irritabilitās.
Pronunciation
Noun
irritability (countable and uncountable, plural irritabilities)
- The state or quality of being irritable; quick excitability
irritability of temper
- (physiology) A natural susceptibility, characteristic of all living organisms, tissues, and cells, to the influence of certain stimuli, response being manifested in a variety of ways.
1800, Erasmus Darwin, Phytologia, Or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening:We find a renitency in ourselves to ascribe life and irritability to the cold and motionless fibres of plants.
- 1835, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (d. 1834), Specimens of the Table Talk
- There is growth only in plants; but there is irritability, or, a better word, instinctivity, in insects.
- (medicine) A condition of morbid excitability of an organ or part of the body; undue susceptibility to the influence of stimuli.
Synonyms
Translations
state or quality of being irritable
References
- “irritability”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “irritability”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.