Vulnerable

//ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.

    "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’"

  2. 2
    More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.; Open to disclosing one's inner thoughts and feelings, acting in spite of one's instinct to self-preservation.

    "It's okay to get vulnerable every now and again."

  3. 3
    More likely to be exposed to malicious programs or viruses.

    "a vulnerable PC with no antivirus software"

  4. 4
    at moderate risk of extinction though not quite endangered.

    "Welsh is merely a vulnerable language, but Irish and Scottish Gaelic are definitely endangered."

Adjective
  1. 1
    capable of being wounded or hurt wordnet
  2. 2
    susceptible to criticism or persuasion or temptation wordnet
  3. 3
    susceptible to attack wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
penetrableweakdefencelessaidlessanswerable forapt to

Example

More examples

"Mr Smith is vulnerable to this kind of criticism."

Etymology

From Late Latin vulnerābilis (“injurious, wounding”), from Latin vulnerō (“I wound”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.