vulnerability

noun
/ˌvʌln(ə)ɹəˈbɪlɪti/UK/ˌvʌln(ə)ɹəˈbɪləti/CA/ˌvɐln(ə)ɹəˈbɪləti/

Etymology

From vulnerable + -ity.

  1. derived from vulnerō
  2. borrowed from vulnerābilis
  3. formed as vulnerability — “vulnerable + -ity

Definitions

  1. The state of being vulnerable

    The state of being vulnerable; susceptibility to attack or injury, either physical or emotional; the state or condition of being weak or poorly defended.

    • The country recognized their defence vulnerability after an airplane landed in front of the central square without any consequences.
    • The only disadvantage of timber snow fencing is its extreme vulnerability to fire.
    • 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.
  2. A specific weakness in the protections or defences surrounding someone or something.

  3. A weakness which allows an attacker to reduce a system's security.

    • Experts told CNN it could take weeks to address the vulnerabilities and that suspected Chinese hackers are already attempting to exploit it.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at vulnerability. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01vulnerability02physical03matter04substance05firmness06firm07hooliganism08aggressive09exploiting10exploit

A definitional loop anchored at vulnerability. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at vulnerability

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA