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.
-
Law.
-
being unable or legally unqualified to perform specified acts or to be held legally responsible for such acts.
-
inadmissible, as evidence.
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noun
-
an incompetent person; a mentally deficient person.
-
Law. a person lacking power to act with legal effectiveness.
adjective
-
not possessing the necessary ability, skill, etc to do or carry out a task; incapable
-
marked by lack of ability, skill, etc
-
law not legally qualified
an incompetent witness
-
(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.
The 81-year-old had previously been found mentally incompetent last May but prison officials then declared in December that he was fit for trial following his hospital stay.
From BBC • Mar. 28, 2026
Money is the focus in the tracks like “La Moneda,” with Joel’s voice echoing through the backdrop as he proclaims that cash might change some tacky, incompetent chumps, but not him.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026
They told me her personal physician had never declared her incompetent and was actually reinstating her competency.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 19, 2026
The upside is that you keep your enemies on their toes, while the downside is that you risk looking unsure and incompetent at home.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026
She was so nonfunctional and listless that her appointed lawyer thought she was incompetent to stand trial.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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.
