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agitation

UK/ædʒ.ɪˈteɪ.ʃən/US/ædʒ.ɪˈteɪ.ʃən/
nounC12 meaningsVery rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Other forms: agitations

Agitation is a state of anxious restlessness, when worry will not let you keep still. Pacing, fidgeting, unable to settle.

Medicine uses it precisely, and agitation in a patient is a recognised symptom that carers are trained to respond to, particularly in dementia. There is a completely separate political sense, since agitation for reform means campaigning for it, and an agitator is somebody stirring up a cause. Chemistry has a third, since agitating a mixture means stirring it, which is where all of them come from.

Definitions of agitation

  1. 1nounagitationA state of anxious restlessness.C1

    “He was in a state of real agitation by the time we arrived.”

  2. 2nounpublicPublic campaigning for a political cause.C1

    “Years of agitation preceded the reform.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    agitātiō — movement, agitation

  2. French

    agitation

  3. English, today

    agitation

From French agitation, from Latin agitātiō (“movement, agitation”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Feelings & Character, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 26 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word