incompetent
Americanadjective
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not competent; lacking qualification or ability; incapable.
an incompetent candidate.
- Synonyms:
- unfit, inadequate, unqualified
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characterized by or showing incompetence.
His incompetent acting ruined the play.
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Law.
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being unable or legally unqualified to perform specified acts or to be held legally responsible for such acts.
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inadmissible, as evidence.
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noun
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an incompetent person; a mentally deficient person.
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Law. a person lacking power to act with legal effectiveness.
adjective
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not possessing the necessary ability, skill, etc to do or carry out a task; incapable
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marked by lack of ability, skill, etc
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law not legally qualified
an incompetent witness
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(of rock strata, folds, etc) yielding readily to pressure so as to undergo structural deformation
noun
Related Words
See incapable.
Other Word Forms
- incompetence noun
- incompetently adverb
Etymology
Origin of incompetent
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Late Latin incompetent- (stem of incompetēns ) “unsuitable.” See in- 3, competent
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.
When I asked the nurse what authority they had to do this, she said the attorney had obtained statements from two doctors declaring my relative mentally incompetent.
From MarketWatch
Will, rather than being deprived, simply had very particular rules about what he would eat, and whether or not his diet was killing him didn’t necessarily mean he was mentally incompetent.
At the same time, Scott criticized Powell during the interview, saying he found him to be “inept at doing his job, but ineptness or being incompetent is not a criminal act.”
From MarketWatch
Scott said he didn’t like Powell’s answers “but ineptness or being incompetent is not a criminal act.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fired a senior official tasked with economic policy and condemned "incompetent" apparatchiks for delays in the opening of an important factory, state media said Tuesday.
From Barron's
Definitions 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.
