vulnerability

English

Etymology

From vulnerable +‎ -ity.[1][2]

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌvʌln(ə)ɹəˈbɪlɪti/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ˌvʌln(ə)ɹəˈbɪləti/, [ˌvʌln(ə)ɹəˈbɪləɾi]
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (Australia) IPA(key): /ˌvɐln(ə)ɹəˈbɪləti/, [ˌvɐln(ə)ɹəˈbɪləɾi]
  • (proscribed) IPA(key): /ˌvʌn(ə)ɹəˈbɪlɪti/
  • Hyphenation: vul‧ner‧a‧bil‧i‧ty
  • Rhymes: -ɪlɪti

Noun

vulnerability (countable and uncountable, plural vulnerabilities)

  1. (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.
    Synonym: vulnerableness
    Antonym: invulnerability
    Near-synonym: weakness
    The country recognized their defence vulnerability after an airplane landed in front of the central square without any consequences.
    • 1960 January, M. Harbottle, “Maintaining Services after Heavy Snowfalls”, in Railway Magazine, page 9:
      The only disadvantage of timber snow fencing is its extreme vulnerability to fire.
    • 2019 January 23, Susan Scutti, “Climate change will affect gender ratio among newborns, scientists say”, in CNN‎[1], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 16 September 2025:
      Though scientists do not know how stress affects gestation, Fukuda theorizes that the vulnerability of Y-bearing sperm cells, male embryos and/or male fetuses to stress is why “subtle significant changes in sex ratios” occur.
    • 2019, Bridget Sweet, Thinking Outside the Voice Box, page 71:
      Again, voice change is not easy and vulnerability plays a big part, but if choral teachers and adolescent singers approach it with the right mindframe, the experience can be empowering, enlightening, and restorative for all involved.
  2. (countable) A specific weakness in the protections or defences that (literally or figuratively) surround someone or something.
    Near-synonyms: flaw, weakness, liability
    2. (computing) A weakness which allows an attacker to reduce a system's security.
      Synonym: vuln (clipping)
      • 2021 December 13, Sean Lyngaas, “US warns hundreds of millions of devices at risk from newly revealed software vulnerability”, in CNN‎[2], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 11 May 2026:
        Experts told CNN it could take weeks to address the vulnerabilities and that suspected Chinese hackers are already attempting to exploit it.

Derived terms

Translations

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Translations to be checked

References

  1. ^ “vulnerability, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “vulnerability (n.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
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