incompetence
or in·com·pe·ten·cy
[in-kom-pi-tuh ns or in-kom-pi-tuh n-see]
- the quality or condition of being incompetent; lack of ability.
- Law. the condition of lacking power to act with legal effectiveness.
Origin of incompetence
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for incompetence
Contemporary Examples
And their suspicions make them see betrayal at every turn, even when incompetence may be the cause of a particular problem.
And they suggest something worse than incompetence is at work there.
That and incompetence at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital may have caused the deadly disease to spread.
Watching this incompetence is infuriating, and the view security cameras show from inside the mall is horrific.
When it comes to the practice of democracy, Americans now have few illusions about our own incompetence, division, and negligence.
Historical Examples
Was discharged for incompetence, and took up honest writing.
Who Was Who: 5000 B. C. to DateAnonymous
He dismissed her only this morning, on a trumped-up charge of incompetence.
The CreviceWilliam John Burns and Isabel Ostrander
Yet in too many of the cases the sentence of incompetence or cowardice was just.
The Siege of BostonAllen French
You must become an advertiser or you must pay the penalty of incompetence.
The Clock that Had no HandsHerbert Kaufman
One was the incompetence of the Irish people for local government.
Home RuleHarold Spender
Word Origin and History for incompetence
n.
1660s, "inadequacy;" 1716, "want of skill," from French incompétence (mid-16c.), from in- "not, opposite of, without" (see in- (1)) + compétence (see competence). Native formation incompetency (from incompetent + -cy) is attested from 1610s.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
incompetence
(ĭn-kŏm′pĭ-təns)
- The quality of being incompetent or incapable of performing a function, as the failure of the cardiac valves to close properly.
- The condition of being not legally qualified, as to stand trial.
- The inability to distinguish right from wrong or to manage one's affairs.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.