adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any substance causing irritation; an irritant.

Adjective

1. 1
   serving to excite or irritate

   "an irritative agent"

2. 2
   accompanied with, or produced by, increased action or irritation

   "an irritative fever"

Adjective

1. 1
   (used of physical stimuli) serving to stimulate or excite wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

frettinggallinggratinggrindingirritatingrasping

Example

More examples

"For the irritative ideas of the apparent motions of objects are now excited by irritation from internal stimulus"

Etymology

From irritate + -ive.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.