I've heard this expression [相変]{あいか}わらず quite often before coming upon it
again in this sentence: 俺は相変わらず苛立っていた that a character says as he vents his
frustration on things not going right in his volleyball club. There is an
explanation of this expression
[here](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/643/meaning/m0u/), but my Japanese
isn't good enough for me to understand it. Could someone give me an
explanation for what it means and a few examples of it so that I could see it
used in context?
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meaning
相変わらず - Meaning and usage
Well 相変わらず simply means "as usual". It indicates something that up to this
point has not changed.

In your example the character is saying: "As usual, I was irritated"
(depending on the context you might be able to choose a more suitable English
word than "irritated").

Does this not make sense? You can find a lot of examples of usage of 相変わらず
[here](http://ejje.weblio.jp/sentence/content/%E7%9B%B8%E5%A4%89%E3%82%8F%E3%82%89%E3%81%9A).

To take it a bit further, try to break it down looking at 相 and 変（変わる）
separately.

**NOTE:** Please notice that the following is my interpretation. I plan to
look more into it but I haven't found any source yet to back it up.

According to my dictionary, one of the meanings of 相 is "one's nature/destiny"
or "custom/tradition" (it is indicated as one of the possible kanji for さが: 性
or 相).

The verb 変わる as you know means "to change", and 変わらず put in this form
(negative plus ず) means "without changing".

So if you see it this way it should make sense that 相変わらず indicates that "the
nature of something" (相) "does not change" (変わらず), which becomes the idiomatic
expression "as usual".
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answer
I think 相変わらず can mean either:

「いつも通り」「いつもと変わらず」「いつもと同じく」 "as usual" "as ever" "as always"

> 「俺は相変わらず苛立っていた」≂「俺は **いつも通り** 苛立っていた」"I was irritated _as usual_."

or 「以前と同様」「いまだに」「まだ」 "as before" "still"

> 「俺は相変わらず苛立っていた」≂「俺は **まだ** 苛立っていた」"I was _still_ irritated."

* * *

Examples from _Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary_ (プログレッシブ和英中辞典):

>   * 祭日だというのに父は **相変わらず** 忙しい。  
>  Even though it's a holiday, my father is (as) busy _as usual_.
>   * 彼女は **相変わらず** 彼に好意を持っていた。  
>  She _still_ liked him.
>
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answer