annoying

annoying — adjective

1. describing a person, habit, or situation that gives you a small but constant fee

1.adjectiveB1
Definition

describing a person, habit, or situation that gives you a small but constant feeling of being bothered, so you wish it would stop.

Example

The dripping tap in Sofia's bathroom is the most annoying sound she has to live with.

an annoying + noun (attributive use)

Riku found his cousin's habit of cracking his knuckles incredibly annoying.

find + object + annoying

Common collocations
  • really annoying
  • incredibly annoying
  • highly annoying
  • annoying habit
  • annoying noise
  • annoying voice
  • find something annoying
Synonyms
  • irritating

    very close in meaning; often suggests something that wears on your nerves over time.

  • bothersome

    slightly formal; describes something that creates a small problem or inconvenience.

  • tiresome

    stresses that the cause repeats so often it makes you weary, not just bothered.

  • vexing

    formal or literary; suggests something that puzzles and bothers you at the same time.

Antonyms
  • pleasant

    describes something that gives you a comfortable, enjoyable feeling instead.

  • soothing

    specifically about sounds, voices, or sensations that calm rather than bother.

Grammar Patterns

an annoying + noun

be / find + (something) + annoying

it is annoying + that-clause

it is annoying + to-infinitive

Usage Note

Subject is the cause, not the person who feels bothered — say 'the noise is annoying', not 'I am annoying' (which would mean other people find you bothersome). Frequently appears in 'find + object + annoying' and in dummy-it frames ('it is annoying that…' / 'it is annoying to…').

Common Mistakes

I am annoying because I lost my keys.
I am annoyed because I lost my keys.
'-ing' describes the cause; '-ed' describes the person who feels it.
The traffic noise is annoyed me all night.
The traffic noise is annoying me all night.
use 'annoying' (the verb form) here, not the past participle.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

These five adjectives all describe causes of unpleasant feelings, but they differ in strength and flavour. 'Annoying' is the everyday choice for something that creates a small, repeated bother — a barking dog, a slow website, a person who interrupts. 'Irritating' is its closest cousin and often interchangeable, though it leans toward something that scrapes at your nerves over time, like a high-pitched whine. 'Infuriating' is much stronger and suggests the cause makes you genuinely angry, not just bothered. 'Tiresome' adds the idea that you have grown weary because the cause keeps coming back, while 'bothersome' is slightly formal and stresses the small inconvenience. So a flickering light might be 'annoying' or 'irritating', but a deliberate insult is 'infuriating'.

annoying ↗irritatinginfuriatingtiresome ↗bothersome

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • find something annoying
  • how annoying!
  • the annoying thing is …

Prepositions

  • annoying for (someone)
  • annoying to (someone)
  • annoying about (a thing)

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishModern English

Built from the verb 'annoy' plus the present-participle ending '-ing'. 'Annoy' arrived in Middle English in the 1200s from Old French 'anoier', meaning to bother or weary, which itself traced back to a Latin phrase 'in odio' (literally 'in hatred'). The active form 'annoying' came to mean 'currently causing bother' and, by the late 1500s, settled into its modern adjective use describing a thing or person that produces that small, persistent bothered feeling.