Vulnerability

How to spell vulnerability

13 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce vulnerability

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vulnerability mean?

1. nounThe state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked, harmed, or hurt, whether physically or emotionally.
2. nounA weakness in a computer system or network that can be exploited by an attacker.

Vulnerability in a sentence

• The report highlighted the financial vulnerability of households with no savings.

• The security team patched the vulnerability before any data was stolen.

• Sharing his fear with the group took real courage and a willingness to show vulnerability.

• A routine scan flagged a serious vulnerability in the login system.

Where does vulnerability come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun vulnus, which literally meant 'a wound' or 'an injury'. From it Latin formed the verb vulnerare, 'to wound', and the late Latin adjective vulnerabilis, meaning 'capable of being wounded' or 'liable to harm'. English took up 'vulnerable' in the early 1600s, and the abstract noun 'vulnerability' followed to name the very state of being open to harm. The buried Latin vulnus is the reason the spelling keeps that tricky 'l' after the 'u' and the single 'n', a sequence that rarely sounds the way it looks. A useful memory hook is that the word is essentially about being woundable, so the heart of it is 'vulner', the wound.

How the word is built

• vulner- (from Latin vulnus: wound)
• -abil- (able to be)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)