rankle vs irritate

rankle and irritate both are verbs.

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

As verbs, irritate is a hypernym of rankle; that is, irritate is a word with a broader meaning than rankle:

Other hypernyms of rankle include annoy, bother, chafe, devil, get at, get to, gravel, nark, nettle, rag, rile, vex.

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