VULNERABILITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does vulnerability mean? 

• VULNERABILITY (noun)
  The noun VULNERABILITY has 2 senses:

1. the state of being vulnerable or exposed

2. susceptibility to injury or attack

  Familiarity information: VULNERABILITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VULNERABILITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being vulnerable or exposed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

exposure; vulnerability

Context example:

his exposure to ridicule

Hypernyms ("vulnerability" is a kind of...):

danger (the condition of being susceptible to harm or injury)

Derivation:

vulnerable (capable of being wounded or hurt)

vulnerable (susceptible to criticism or persuasion or temptation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Susceptibility to injury or attack

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("vulnerability" is a kind of...):

weakness (the property of lacking physical or mental strength; liability to failure under pressure or stress or strain)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vulnerability"):

defencelessness; defenselessness; unprotectedness (the property of being helpless in the face of attack)

assailability (vulnerability to forceful attack)

destructibility (vulnerability to destruction)

breakability; fragility; frangibility; frangibleness (quality of being easily damaged or destroyed)

exposure (vulnerability to the elements; to the action of heat or cold or wind or rain)

Antonym:

invulnerability (the property of being invulnerable; the property of being incapable of being hurt (physically or emotionally))

Derivation:

vulnerable (susceptible to attack)

 Context examples 

FAD-linked PS1 mutation downregulates the unfolded protein response and leads to vulnerability to ER stress.

(Alzheimer's Disease Pathway KEGG, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

They examined the effect of recalling positive memories on two signs of vulnerability to depression: negative self-related thoughts and high morning levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

(Recalling happy memories during adolescence can reduce risk of depression, University of Cambridge)

The team found that mAb114 binds to a novel site of vulnerability on the Ebola virus that was previously thought to be unreachable by antibodies.

(Experimental Ebola antibody protects monkeys, NIH)

This balance is, however, depending on the stability provided by the Ross Island pinning point, which the new study identifies as a point of future vulnerability.

(Rapid melting of the world’s largest ice shelf linked to solar heat in the ocean, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Their studies also uncovered a previously unrecognized vulnerability in the cancer cells that scientists may be able to exploit to develop new strategies against the cancer and related diseases.

(Scientists find promising drug combination against lethal childhood brain cancers, National Institutes of Health)

Studies of the links between biology and behavior aimed at identifying preexisting vulnerabilities to tobacco use and addiction.

(Biobehavioral Determinants of Tobacco Use and Addiction, NCI Thesaurus)

It raises concern over increased vulnerability of coastal settlements in the populated, low- to middle- income tropical countries to extreme weather events.

(Global disasters linked to warming Indo-Pacific seas, SciDev.Net)

On Monday, digital security researchers Mathy Vanhoef and Frank Piessens of Belgium's KU Leuven university publicly disclosed a security vulnerability in the WPA2 Wi-Fi (wireless local-area networking) protocol, which they called KRACK (for Key Reinstallation Attack).

(Digital security researchers publicly reveal vulnerability in WPA2 WiFi protocol, Wikinews)

Taken together, the researchers wrote, the findings suggest that an abnormality in serotonin metabolism could indicate an underlying vulnerability that increases SIDS risk and that testing blood samples for serotonin could distinguish certain SIDS cases from other infant deaths.

(Blood of SIDS infants contains high levels of serotonin, National Institutes of Health)

Their goals are to understand what defines the vulnerability to stress in MMA to better diagnose life-threatening metabolic crises that occur in patients, test new genomic therapies and find treatments that work for every patient.

(Elevated hormone flags liver problems in mice with methylmalonic acidemia, National Institutes of Health)