competence

[ kom-pi-tuhns ]
See synonyms for competence on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the quality of being competent; adequacy; possession of required skill, knowledge, qualification, or capacity: He hired her because of her competence as an accountant.

  2. an income sufficient to furnish the necessities and modest comforts of life.

  1. sufficiency; a sufficient quantity.

  2. Law. (of a witness, a party to a contract, etc.) legal capacity or qualification based on the meeting of certain minimum requirements of age, soundness of mind, citizenship, or the like.

  3. Embryology. the sum total of possible developmental responses of any group of blastemic cells under varied external conditions.

  4. Linguistics. the implicit, internalized knowledge of a language that a speaker possesses and that enables the speaker to produce and understand the language.: Compare performance (def. 8).

  5. Immunology. immunocompetence.

  6. Geology. the ability of a fluid medium, as a stream or the wind, to move and carry particulate matter, measured by the size or weight of the largest particle that can be transported.

Origin of competence

1
First recorded in 1585–95; compet(ent) + -ence

Words Nearby competence

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use competence in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for competence

competence

/ (ˈkɒmpɪtəns) /


noun
  1. the condition of being capable; ability

  2. a sufficient income to live on

  1. the state of being legally competent or qualified

  2. embryol the ability of embryonic tissues to react to external conditions in a way that influences subsequent development

  3. linguistics (in transformational grammar) the form of the human language faculty, independent of its psychological embodiment in actual human beings: Compare performance (def. 7), langue, parole (def. 5)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for competence

competence

[ kŏmpĭ-təns ]


  1. The ability of bacteria to be undergo genetic transformation.

  2. The ability to respond immunologically to an antigen, as in an immune cell responding to a virus.

  1. The ability to function normally because of structural integrity, as in a heart valve.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.