annoyance

/əˈnɔɪəns/ (bre, ipa) · /əˈnɔɪəns/ (ame, ipa) · /ə-ˈnȯi-ən(t)s/ (ame, mw)

annoyance — 名詞

1. the slight angry, impatient feeling you get when something or someone keeps both

1.名詞C1
釋義

惱怒；煩躁

被打擾或受阻時產生的不悅感

the slight angry, impatient feeling you get when something or someone keeps bothering you or stops you from doing what you want.

例句

Citlali could hear the annoyance in her father's voice when he saw the broken vase.

看到摔破的花瓶時，Citlali 從父親的語氣中聽得出他的惱怒。

the annoyance in [someone]'s voice — common collocation

To the teacher's great annoyance, the students kept whispering during the test.

讓老師感到非常不悅的是，學生在考試時一直在低聲講話。

to [someone]'s (great) annoyance — sentence-level pattern

同義詞
  • irritation

    very close in meaning; slightly more focused on the prickly mental sensation.

  • frustration

    stronger, suggests being blocked from a goal, not just bothered.

  • displeasure

    more formal; covers any dissatisfied feeling, not only the prickly bothered kind.

反義詞
  • pleasure

    the positive feeling that something is enjoyable, not bothersome.

  • delight

    stronger positive feeling; common in the parallel frame 'to her delight'.

文法句型

to someone's annoyance

with annoyance

用法筆記

Uncountable in this sense — say 'felt great annoyance', not 'an annoyance'. Frequently appears in fixed frames such as 'to (someone's) annoyance' and 'with annoyance', or paired with verbs like 'hide', 'show', 'cause', 'express'.

常見錯誤

❌I felt an annoyance when he was late.
✅I felt annoyance when he was late.
💡in the feeling sense, 'annoyance' is uncountable, so no 'an' or plural.
❌He looked at me with a big annoyance.
✅He looked at me with great annoyance.
💡modify with 'great', 'mild', 'obvious', not 'big'.

2. a thing, situation, or person that keeps causing you a small amount of trouble o

2.名詞C1
釋義

麻煩；煩人事

經常造成小困擾的人或事

a thing, situation, or person that keeps causing you a small amount of trouble or bother, though not real harm.

例句

The mosquitoes by the lake were a constant annoyance during our family camping trip.

我們全家露營時，湖邊的蚊子一直是個揮之不去的麻煩。

a constant annoyance — typical adjective collocation

For Viraj, his neighbor's barking dog was a daily annoyance he could no longer ignore.

對 Viraj 來說，鄰居那隻整天叫的狗是他再也無法忽視的日常困擾。

subject = a person/thing; complement = annoyance

同義詞
  • nuisance

    very close synonym; slightly more focused on something that is repeatedly inconvenient.

  • bother

    more informal; emphasizes the small effort it costs you.

  • irritant

    formal; suggests something that constantly rubs people the wrong way.

反義詞
  • blessing

    something that brings comfort or benefit, the opposite of a small repeated bother.

文法句型

a minor / constant / small annoyance

用法筆記

Countable here, so 'a/an' or plural is correct ('a minor annoyance', 'small annoyances of city life'). Distinguish from sense 1 (FEELING): if you can replace it with 'irritation as a feeling', it is sense 1; if you can replace it with 'nuisance' or 'bother', it is sense 2.

常見錯誤

❌My slow laptop is annoyance.
✅My slow laptop is an annoyance.
💡countable, so it needs 'a/an' or a plural.
❌The traffic was a big annoyance for him.
✅The traffic was a major annoyance for him.
💡pair with 'minor', 'major', 'constant', 'real', not 'big'.