exasperating

adjective

ex·​as·​per·​at·​ing ig-ˈza-spə-ˌrā-tiŋ 

: causing strong feelings of irritation or annoyance

an exasperating delay

After the most frustrating, aggravating and exasperating two days of his career …

—Jack Curry

The following days brought light fluky winds and I made only 35 miles of progress in two days. It was very exasperating.

—Tom Peterson

exasperatingly adverb

an exasperatingly slow process

The heater warmed up slowly; its temperature was exasperatingly difficult to adjust.

—Consumer Reports

Synonyms of exasperating

• frustrating
• annoying
• irritating
• disturbing

Examples of exasperating in a Sentence

those exasperating details that come with almost any job

Recent Examples on the Web

As was the overall result for a confounding team (23-10) that essentially has been equal parts exhilarating and exasperating. —Kansas City Star, 14 Mar. 2026

One early road trip scene is particularly exasperating, carrying the feeling of carpooling with acquaintances who simply don’t like you enough to involve you. —Blake Simons, IndieWire, 18 Feb. 2026

The process to get the story on the air has been exasperating. —Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 18 Jan. 2026

Federer’s light jokes in the Melbourne news conference drew automatic laughs from many in attendance, which one journalist found exasperating. —Owen Lewis, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1592, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for exasperating

• accelerating
• accentuating
• accommodating
• accumulating
• adjudicating
• administrating
• affiliating
• agglutinating
• alienating
• alleviating
• amalgamating
• ameliorating