Definition

1. Noun:
   • Legal/Formal Protection: An official exemption or freedom from a legal duty, penalty, or prosecution.
   • Resistance to Influence: The quality or state of being unaffected or impervious to something, typically something negative.
   • Biological Resistance: (Medicine/Biology) The condition of being able to resist a particular infectious disease, due to the presence of specific antibodies or sensitized white blood cells.
   • General Non-Susceptibility: The state of not being vulnerable or susceptible to a particular condition, substance, or effect.

Usage Examples

• Legal/Formal Protection:
  • The witness was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.
  • Diplomatic immunity protects ambassadors from certain local laws.
• Resistance to Influence:
  • His wealth gave him a certain immunity to the financial crisis.
  • She seemed to have an immunity to peer pressure.
• Biological Resistance:
  • Vaccination provides immunity against many dangerous diseases.
  • Recovering from the infection gave him natural immunity.
• General Non-Susceptibility:
  • This alloy has an immunity to corrosion.

Advanced Usage

• "Sovereign immunity": A legal doctrine that a sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution.
  • The case was dismissed based on the principle of sovereign immunity.
• "Herd immunity": (Epidemiology) Resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population when a high percentage of individuals have become immune.
  • Public health officials aim for herd immunity through widespread vaccination.

Variants and Related Words

• Immune (adj): Protected or exempt, especially from disease or obligation.
  • He is immune to chickenpox.
  • The judge is not immune from criticism.
• Immunize (verb): To make someone immune to a disease, typically by inoculation.
  • Children are immunized against measles.
• Immunology (noun): The branch of medicine and biology concerned with immunity.

Synonyms

• Exemption: The process of freeing or state of being free from an obligation or liability imposed on others.
• Resistance: The ability not to be affected by something, especially adversely.
• Insusceptibility: The condition of not being likely to be affected or harmed by something.

Related Phrases

• Immunity from prosecution: A legal guarantee that a person will not face criminal charges.
  • The deal offered the informant full immunity from prosecution.
• Acquired immunity: Immunity that develops during a person's lifetime, from exposure to disease or vaccination.
  • Acquired immunity can be active or passive.
• Cellular immunity: An immune response that does not involve antibodies but rather the activation of specific immune cells.
  • Cellular immunity is crucial for fighting viral infections.

Noun

1. an act exempting someone
   • he was granted immunity from prosecution
2. the quality of being unaffected by something
   • immunity to criticism
3. (medicine) the condition in which an organism can resist disease
4. the state of not being susceptible
   • unsusceptibility to rust