inability
Americannoun
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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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:
Seems to me I was just reading about how the acquiring of players James asked for was considered a factor in the team’s inability to put together a cohesive unit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
“By far my biggest concern with them is and always has been their inability to adapt,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
One consistent narrative, however, even 250 years in, is our country’s inability to reckon with the genocide of Indigenous people that kicked the whole thing off.
From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026
Another factor that gamers bring up about a digital-only gaming ecosystem is the impact on pricing, and the inability to resell games.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
The celebration appealed to many of Mark Antony’s weaknesses besides his inability to pass up a good party.
From "Sterling Biographies®: Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen" by Susan Blackaby
Researchers also found partners expressed feelings of high stress, a diminished sense of personal growth and worth, difficulties or inabilities within their caregiving roles, and a general sense of feeling unsupported.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 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
He oversteps, too, the inabilities of the histrionic art.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 353, March 1845 by Various
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.
