susceptibility

Noun

susceptibility (countable and uncountable, plural susceptibilities)

1. (uncountable) The condition of being susceptible; vulnerability.
   • It has been reported that periparturient cows undergo a period of immunosuppression of various immunological parameters associated with a high susceptibility to uterine and mammary infections […]2015 August 29, “Different Blood Cell-Derived Transcriptome Signatures in Cows Exposed to Vaccination Pre- or Postpartum”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI
2. (countable) A way in which one is susceptible.
   • It seems that the spiritual fermentation of the cabbalists, who in the sixteenth century established a center in Northern Palestine (Safed) and aroused the dormant susceptibilities of the Orient, penetrated also into Yemen and had the effect of a messianic message to the languishing souls longing...1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 365
3. emotional sensitivity.
   • The eyes were large and black, and had the moonlight's melancholy, with that tearful lustre which is the certain sign of keen susceptibility.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Anticipation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 40
4. Being vulnerable to a treatment (usually an antibiotic or antifungal); also, the degree of such vulnerability (i.e., weak, moderate, or strong).

   Synonyms:

   sensitivity

5. electric susceptibility, a measure of how easily a dielectric polarizes in response to an external electric field (compare permittivity).