exposed
Americanadjective
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left or being without shelter or protection.
The house stood on a windy, exposed cliff.
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laid open to view; unconcealed.
an exposed king of spades.
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susceptible to attack; vulnerable.
adjective
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not concealed; displayed for viewing
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without shelter from the elements
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susceptible to attack or criticism; vulnerable
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mountaineering (of a climb, pitch, or move) performed on a high, sheer, and unsheltered rock face
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of exposed
Explanation
Something that's exposed is uncovered or unprotected. An exposed hillside isn't sheltered by hills, trees, or buildings, but is completely open to the wind and weather. If you venture out on a bitterly cold day with no gloves, your exposed fingers might get frostbite, and a soldier in battle with no body armor is dangerously exposed. If you leave a wooden chair outside all year long, exposed to rain and snow and sun, it will eventually fall apart. Exposed comes from the verb expose, "leave without shelter or defense," from the Latin root exponere, "lay open or reveal."
Vocabulary lists containing exposed
"Slam: Performance Poetry Lives On" and "Euphoria"
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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Uh-Oh: Synonyms for "Dangerous"
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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.
"Forty-three percent of household wealth is now exposed to the stock market, an increase of 10 percentage points from 2000," said Cavalier.
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026
And if those stocks truly crash, ordinary people are going to get hit with losses that are far worse than they ever imagined, and find that they are more exposed than they realized.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
The finance sector—one area seen as heavily exposed to AI—added 7,000 jobs, but has been in a weakening trend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
"She was able to identify two workplaces where she might well have been exposed, one of which was the Palace of Westminster."
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
Along the bank we were almost fully exposed to the sun, though the thick woods continued to stretch for miles around us.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
