vulnerable
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
10 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "vulnerable", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "vulnerable" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "vulnerable" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
vulnerable is anEnglishadj. It means: More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally. Pronounced /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/. It ranks #5,095 in English word frequency. Often confused with venerable.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | vulnerable |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #5,095 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for vulnerable is 10 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,095 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 16 documented wrong-spelling variants for vulnerable, with forms such as "uvlnerable", "vlunerable", and "vulenrable". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "venerable", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Latin vulnerābilis (“injurious, wounding”), from Latin vulnerō (“I wound”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is vulnerable, spelled V-U-L-N-E-R-A-B-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.
- 2More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.
- 3More likely to be exposed to malicious programs or viruses.
- 4at moderate risk of extinction though not quite endangered.
Etymology
From Late Latin vulnerābilis (“injurious, wounding”), from Latin vulnerō (“I wound”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: uvlnerable,vlunerable,vulenrable,vullnerable,vulnearble,vulnerabble,vulnerabel,vulnerablle,vulneralbe,vulnerbale,vulnerible,vulnerrable,vulnnerable,vulnreable,vunlerable,vvulnerable
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for vulnerable
Misspelling Variants of "vulnerable"
Frequency rank: #5,095 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter V in our English index: