exasperate vs irritate

exasperate and irritate both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
exasperate	No	No	Yes	No
irritate	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, irritate is a hyponym of exasperate; that is, irritate is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than exasperate:

Other hyponyms of exasperate include inflame, cheapen, degrade.

exasperate (verb)	irritate (verb)
make worse	excite to an abnormal condition, or chafe or inflame
exasperate or irritate	excite to some characteristic action or condition, such as motion, contraction, or nervous impulse, by the application of a stimulus
make furious	cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations