immunity
Americannoun
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the state of being immune from or insusceptible to a particular disease or the like.
- Antonyms:
- susceptibility
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the condition that permits either natural or acquired resistance to disease.
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the ability of a cell to react immunologically in the presence of an antigen.
-
exemption from any natural or usual liability.
- Antonyms:
- liability
-
exemption from obligation, service, duty, or liability to taxation, jurisdiction, etc..
The ambassador claimed diplomatic immunity when they arrested him for reckless driving.
- Synonyms:
- prerogative, liberty, license, franchise
- Antonyms:
- liability
-
Law. exemption from criminal prosecution or legal liability or punishment on certain conditions.
-
special privilege.
-
Ecclesiastical.
-
the exemption of ecclesiastical persons and things from secular or civil liabilities, duties, and burdens.
-
a particular exemption of this kind.
-
noun
-
the ability of an organism to resist disease, either through the activities of specialized blood cells or antibodies produced by them in response to natural exposure or inoculation ( active immunity ) or by the injection of antiserum or the transfer of antibodies from a mother to her baby via the placenta or breast milk ( passive immunity ) See also acquired immunity natural immunity
-
freedom from obligation or duty, esp exemption from tax, duty, legal liability, etc
-
any special privilege granting immunity
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the exemption of ecclesiastical persons or property from various civil obligations or liabilities
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The protection of the body from a disease caused by an infectious agent, such as a bacterium or virus. Immunity may be natural (that is, inherited) or acquired.
-
See also acquired immunity
Synonym Usage
See exemption.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of immunity
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French immunite, from Latin immūnitāt-, stem of immūnitās “freedom or exemption from public charges or burdens.” See immune, -ity
Explanation
Immunity means exemption or resistance. If you're protected against something, you have immunity to it. Your new silver clothes just might grant you immunity from getting thrown in jail by the fashion police. In the late 14th century, the noun immunity, which means “exempt from service or obligation,” developed from the Latin immunitatem, which has nearly identical meaning. Break that word down even further, and you get immunis, meaning “exempt, free,” from in "not" and munis, meaning “performing services.” In a medical sense, immunity is “protection from disease.” Your annual flu shot tries to give you immunity from, or make you insusceptible to, the illness.
Vocabulary lists containing immunity
The Constitution of the United States
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"On Women's Right to Vote" by Susan B. Anthony
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Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A 95 percent vaccination rate with the modern, two-dose MMR shot—so named because it also protects against mumps and rubella—is enough to provide herd immunity from measles.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
His lawyers have previously said they would make arguments about the legality of his abduction and his immunity as a head of state.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Maduro was expected to seek immunity in the civil proceedings as a head of state, The New York Times reported.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Among the vaccine nonresponders who received spermidine, several indicators of vaccine-related immunity improved substantially.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
In his era, even simple lacerations often left diabetics with savage infections that necessitated limb and digit amputations, a consequence of the disease’s ravaging effect on circulation and immunity.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
He celebrated the “government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance—but generously affording to all Liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
"Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United States has only one chief executive at a time," Judge Chutkan wrote late on Friday.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2023
She called the prohibition a violation of Afghanistan’s obligations as a U.N. member nation “to respect the privileges and immunities of the United Nations and its officials, including Afghan women who work for us.”
From Washington Times ● Jun. 22, 2023
"These immunities do not override any warrant that may have been issued by any international tribunal against any attendee of the conference," department spokesperson Clayson Monyela said.
From Reuters ● May 31, 2023
Or if one wished to think biologically rather than architecturally, the body politic had yet to develop its immunities to the political diseases afflicting all new nations.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
