irritability

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a tendency to become annoyed, impatient, or angry easily

   Lack of sleep increased his irritability during the long meeting.

2. 2
   noun

   medicine and biology: the capacity or excessive tendency of a tissue, organ, or organism to respond to stimulation

   The medication reduced the irritability of the inflamed nerve.

From Latin irritabilitas, based on irritabilis, 'easily excited or provoked,' from irritare, 'to provoke or stimulate.' The word entered both psychological language for a quick temper and scientific language for the responsiveness of living tissue to a stimulus.

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