infliction vs irritant

infliction and irritant both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
infliction	Yes	No	No	No
irritant	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, irritant is a hyponym of infliction; that is, irritant is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than infliction:

infliction: something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness
irritant: something that causes irritation and annoyance

Other hyponyms of infliction include nuisance, thorn, plague.

infliction (noun)	irritant (noun)
the act of imposing something (as a tax or an embargo)	something that causes irritation and annoyance
an act causing pain or damage
something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness