vulnerability
noun
Simple meaning
Susceptibility to attack or injury, either physical or emotional.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vuhlneruhbilihteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
vəlnɚəˈbɪlɪti
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
uncountable
The state of being vulnerable; susceptibility to attack or injury, either physical or emotional; the state or condition of being weak or poorly defended.
countable
A specific weakness in the protections or defences surrounding someone or something.
computing
A weakness which allows an attacker to reduce a system's security.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The state of being vulnerable; susceptibility to attack or injury, either physical or emotional; the state or condition of being weak or poorly defended.
Used this way, vulnerability is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use vulnerability
- “His vulnerability to litigation.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- attackernoun
- vulnerableadjective
- weaknessnoun
- penetrationnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: being vulnerable
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.