inability
Americannoun
-
inabilities
plural
noun
Synonym Usage
See disability.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of inability
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English inabilite, from Medieval Latin inhabilitās; equivalent to in- 3 + ability
Explanation
An inability refers to lacking the capacity to do something. A deaf person has an inability to hear. If you know that abilities are things people can do — like the ability of a basketball player to dunk the ball — then you might already have figured out that an inability is something a person cannot do. Most people have an inability to dunk a basketball. People who eat too much have an inability to resist food. Often, this word refers to having mental limitations: an inability to think or figure something out. We all have different abilities and inabilities.
Vocabulary lists containing inability
Dealing with Dragons
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"Ellen West" by Frank Bidart
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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.
See Examples For:
The inability to play with the same freedom and attacking intent that is often on show in big matches on the ATP Tour had become a perennial problem.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
Many pointed particularly to an inability to put out the fires that have ravaged vast swaths of Borneo and Sumatra islands since July.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
His film is a self-reflexive study of the inability to act as people expect — of masking and deception.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026
Most worrisome of all is Manning’s inability to throw the football to his own team.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
He asked Odenigbo over and over where exactly Patel had read medicine and how he could claim that Olanna’s inability to walk was psychological.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
But the frustration is that Australia, at times, have not outplayed England - instead, they have been gifted opportunities to win by England's inabilities to do the basics, like catching the ball.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2025
But the rollout of aid has been slow, partly reflecting the Haitian government’s own inabilities to oversee and coordinate it, an echo of the problems following the 2010 quake.
From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2021
Hewitt’s own inabilities aside, the actress can at least play the part.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2018
But these inabilities do not exceed the corporeal: physical growth is not a metaphor for emotional growth.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 31, 2018
It is not you that are to blame for this sad gap in our correspondence; it is I, or rather it is my misfortunes, and miserable inabilities, broken resolutions, etc., etc.
From The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II. by Thomas Carlyle
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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.
