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Definition of irritability : 1. A condition of morbid excitability of an organ or part of the body; undue susceptibility to the influence of stimuli. See Irritation, n., 3.
2. 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, -- as that quality in plants by which they exhibit motion under suitable stimulation; esp., the property which living muscle processes, of responding either to a direct stimulus of its substance, or to the stimulating influence of its nerve fibers, the response being indicated by a change of form, or contraction; contractility.
3. The state or quality of being irritable; quick excitability; petulance; fretfulness; as, irritability of temper.

Synonyms:

mood, impatience, choler, humor, yellow bile, temper, fretfulness, humour, crabbiness, biliousness, snappishness, ire, pique, anger, irritation, fussiness, excitability, pettishness, annoyance, toughness

explosiveness, passion, rashness, combustibility, impulsiveness, volatility, sensitivity, edginess, brittleness, quick-temperedness, tempestuousness, emotionality, fragility, ardency, excitableness, short-temperedness, recklessness, storminess, nervousness, hot-temperedness

causticity, irascibility, spitefulness, petulance, tartness, cantankerousness, bellicosity, crustiness, sourness, acerbity, surliness, crabbedness, huffiness, churlishness, acrimony, peevishness, bitchiness, prickliness, crossness, bitterness, crankiness, touchiness, bearishness, acidity, pettiness

Usage examples:

• Juve smiled at M. de Presles' sudden irritability, but quickly became grave again. - "Fantômas", Pierre Souvestre Marcel Allain.
• Real illness makes the nervous temperament a much more formidable difficulty- all the sensitive faculties are more sensitive- irritability becomes an obsession and idleness a terror. - "The Untroubled Mind", Herbert J. Hall.
• In the study of processes apparently so complex as those of irritability, we must, of course, expect to be confronted with many difficulties. - "Response in the Living and Non-Living", Jagadis Chunder Bose.