Meaning & use
invulnerability
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The state of being impossible to harm, damage, or defeat.
Grammar: No plural and no article: 'his invulnerability to criticism'.
Patterns
- invulnerability to something
- a sense of invulnerability
- invulnerability against attack
The castle's position gave it a feeling of invulnerability.
Modern medicine has reduced the invulnerability that people once felt against disease.
Her invulnerability to criticism surprised even her closest friends.
noununcountabletechnical
In psychology, an unrealistic belief that you cannot be harmed or make mistakes.
Grammar: Used especially in phrases like 'adolescent invulnerability'.
Patterns
- adolescent invulnerability
- a feeling of invulnerability
Teenagers often show a sense of invulnerability that leads them to take risks.
The therapist explained that invulnerability can prevent people from seeking help.
Common combinations
- sense of invulnerability
- After the accident, he lost his sense of invulnerability.
- invulnerability to criticism
- Her invulnerability to criticism made her a tough negotiator.
- feeling of invulnerability
- The team's early wins created a feeling of invulnerability.
- invulnerability against attack
- The system's invulnerability against attack was tested by experts.
Synonyms and how they differ
- immunity
- Immunity often refers to protection from disease or legal punishment, while invulnerability is a more general state of being unharmable.
- impregnability
- Impregnability is used mostly for physical defenses like forts, whereas invulnerability can also be emotional or psychological.
- indestructibility
- Indestructibility suggests something cannot be destroyed at all, which is stronger and more absolute than invulnerability.
Opposites
Word family
- invulnerable adjective
- Impossible to harm or defeat.
- vulnerability noun
- The state of being easily harmed or attacked.
- vulnerable adjective
- Easily harmed or attacked.
Commonly confused: invulnerability or invulnerable?
invulnerability vs invulnerable
Invulnerable is the adjective; invulnerability is the noun. Say 'He felt invulnerable', not 'He felt invulnerability'.
Practice
The soldiers' ________ to enemy fire was more a myth than a reality.
Choose one answer.
The sentence needs a noun after 'soldiers'', and 'invulnerability' fits the meaning of being unharmable. 'Invulnerable' is an adjective and cannot be the subject, while 'vulnerability' means the opposite.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “invulnerability”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.