different between anxiety vs irritability

English

Etymology

From Latin anxiet?s, from anxius (“anxious, solicitous, distressed, troubled”), from ang? (“to distress, trouble”), akin to Ancient Greek ???? (ánkh?, “to choke”). See anger; angst.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?(?)?za?.?.ti/
• Rhymes: -a??ti

Noun

anxiety (countable and uncountable, plural anxieties)

1. An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 268a.

     But the other, because he's been immersed in arguments, gives the appearance of harbouring considerable anxiety and suspicion that he's ignorant of those matters he presents himself to others as an expert on.

2. An uneasy or distressing desire (for something).
3. (pathology) A state of restlessness and agitation, often accompanied by a distressing sense of oppression or tightness in the stomach.

Synonyms

• care, solicitude, foreboding, uneasiness, perplexity, disquietude, disquiet, trouble, apprehension, restlessness, distress

Related terms

Derived terms

• hangxiety

Translations

Further reading

• anxiety in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• anxiety in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Latin irritabilit?s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????t??b?l?ti/

Noun

irritability (countable and uncountable, plural irritabilities)

1. The state or quality of being irritable; quick excitability

   irritability of temper

2. (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.
   • 1836, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Specimens of the Table Talk

     There is growth only in plants; but there is irritability, or, a better word, instinctivity, in insects.

   • 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.

3. (medicine) A condition of morbid excitability of an organ or part of the body; undue susceptibility to the influence of stimuli.

Synonyms

• (state of being irritable): petulance, fretfulness

Translations

References

• irritability in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• irritability in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.