ir·ri·ta·ble  ( ĭr ĭ-t ə-b əl)
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adj.1. Easily irritated or annoyed. 2. Medicine Abnormally or excessively sensitive to a stimulus: irritable bladder. 3. Capable of responding to a stimulus. Used of an organism.
[French irritable, from Latin irrītābilis, from irrītāre, to irritate.]
ir′ri·ta·bili·ty (-bĭlĭ-tē), irri·ta·ble·ness n. irri·ta·bly adv. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
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