susceptibility

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English susceptible Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Latin -itāsder. Old French -itebor. Middle English -ite English -ity English susceptibility From susceptible + -ity.

1. 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 […]”

2. 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 for redemption.”

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.”

4. Being vulnerable to a treatment (usually an antibiotic or antifungal); also, the degree of such vulnerability (i.e., weak, moderate, or strong).
5. electric susceptibility, a measure of how easily a dielectric polarizes in response to an external electric field (compare permittivity).