inept
Americanadjective
-
without skill or aptitude for a particular task or assignment; maladroit.
He is inept at mechanical tasks. She is inept at dealing with people.
- Synonyms:
- unskillful
- Antonyms:
- suited
-
generally awkward or clumsy; haplessly incompetent.
-
inappropriate; unsuitable; out of place.
-
absurd or foolish.
an inept remark.
adjective
-
awkward, clumsy, or incompetent
-
not suitable, appropriate, or fitting; out of place
Other Word Forms
- ineptitude noun
- ineptly adverb
- ineptness noun
Etymology
Origin of inept
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin ineptus, equivalent to in- in- 3 + -eptus, combining form of aptus apt
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.
A party insider described talk of a leadership challenge before May to me as "politically inept".
From BBC
The smartest guy in the room could also be strangely inept at reading the room.
The authors debunk commonly held myths that cast senior citizens as inept, scam-prone users of the internet.
Gunpowder started to change that, but early firearms were comically inept.
“We spoke a lot about what kind of man Gustav was — the paradox of someone who can see people so clearly in his art yet be so clumsy and inept in his real life.”
From Los Angeles Times
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.
