v. 1
To wound the pride of (someone); to excite to anger; to irritate, to offend.
v. 2
To excite (someone) to action, especially by causing jealousy, resentment, etc.; also, to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest).
I believe this will pique your interest.
n. 1
Enmity, ill feeling; (countable) a feeling of animosity or a dispute.

Related words

Word family: piquet
Other spellings: piqué

Forms

Plural: piques → irritations, umbrages, resentments, tempers…
Past participle: piqued
e.g. piqued → provoked, irritated, exasperated, vexed…

Choose the right word

Pique or Offense?

Pique, from the French, signifies primarily a prick or a sting, as of a nettle; the word denotes a sudden feeling of mingled pain and anger, but slight and usually transient, arising from some neglect or offense, real or imaginary.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

anger Susan broke the dish on purpose to show her anger.
incite The speaker tried to incite the people to rebellion.
irritate What kind of things does Tom do that irritate you?
exasperate Sorry, I didn't mean to exasperate you with my endless questions.
offend I can never allow you to offend my wife like this.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
pique		rising
anger		rising
incite		steady
irritate		rising
exasperate		steady

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: get¹, vex¹, irk¹
4 letters: spur¹, fret¹, rile¹, pica²
5 letters: anger², spite¹, sting¹, annoy², chafe¹
6 letters: bother², temper², offend², awaken³, excite², grudge¹, incite², arouse², ruffle², nettle², rankle²
7 letters: offense², offence, provoke², umbrage²
8 letters: motivate³, mischief², irritate³, marcella³, vexation
9 letters: stimulate³, annoyance³, aggravate³, instigate³, displease²
10 letters: resentment³, irritation⁴, exasperate⁴

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (pica² = 2 syllables).