incompetent
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: incompétent
Etymology
Borrowed from French incompétent, from Late Latin incompetentem, from Latin incompetēns, equivalent to in- + competent.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɪnˈkɒmpətənt/
- Hyphenation: in‧com‧pe‧tent
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
incompetent (comparative more incompetent, superlative most incompetent)
- Lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.
- Synonyms: noncompetent, uncompetent, inept; see also Thesaurus:bad
- Antonyms: competent, capable, able; see also Thesaurus:skilled
- Hyponyms: (usually hyponymous) unskilled, unskillful, untalented, inexperienced, nonexperienced, unexperienced
- Near-synonyms: incapable, inable, unable
- Having an incompetent lawyer may be grounds for a retrial, but the lawyer in question probably doesn't know that.
- 2009 January 8, Nicholas D. Kristof, “The Gaza Boomerang”, in The New York Times:
- Many Gazans scorn Fatah as corrupt and incompetent, and they dislike Hamas's overzealousness and repression.
- Unable to make rational decisions; insane or otherwise cognitively impaired.
- The charged was judged incompetent to stand trial, at least until his medication started working.
- (medicine, of the cervix) Opening too early during pregnancy, resulting in miscarriage or premature birth.
- Near-synonyms: dysfunctional, nonfunctioning
- (geology) Not resistant to deformation or flow.
Derived terms
- incompetently (adverb)
Related terms
Translations
unskilled, lacking normally expected degree of ability
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unable to make rational decisions, insane or otherwise cognitively impaired
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Noun
incompetent (plural incompetents)
- A person who is incompetent.
- 1915, Henry Smith Williams, Edward Huntington Williams, Modern Warfare, page 11:
- But besides these incompetents, there was always a train of camp followers, —women who followed the camp, beggars, and criminals, whose number was often greater than the number of fighting soldiers.
- 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 34:
- "Lies!" said the tallest of the sons of Ivaldi. "I wouldn't trust those fumble-fingered incompetents to shoe a horse."
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