competent
/ˈkɒmpətənt/
competent adjective: having sufficient skill, knowledge, ability, or qualifications.
Adjective
competent (comparative more competent, superlative most competent)
- Having sufficient skill, knowledge, ability, or qualifications.
- He is a competent skier and an expert snowboarder.
- I believe in that myself because it has been explained by competent men as the convolutions of the grey matter.1922, James Joyce, Ulysses
- Having jurisdiction or authority over a particular issue or question.
- For any disagreements arising from this contract, the competent court shall be the Springfield Circuit Court.
- judicial authority having competent jurisdiction
- Adequate for the purpose.
- For if they [birds] had been Viviparous, the burthen of their womb, if they had brought forth any competent number at a time, had been ſo big and heavy, that their wings would have failed them, and ſo every body would have had the wit to catch the Old one.1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 67
- Functionally in order; functioning adequately.
- a competent sphincter; a competent cervix; a competent immune system
- Permeable to foreign DNA.
- Resistant to deformation or flow.
competent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
competent in Hindi
- skilled
- दक्ष dakṣ, कुशल kuśal, निपुण nipuṇ, पारंगत pāraṅgat
competent in Tamil
- உரிய, ஏற்புடைய, தகு, தகுதிவாய்ந்த, தக்க, பொருத்தமான
competent in Urdu
- لائق, مجاز, قابل, قادر
competent in Bengali
- skilled
- ওয়াকেফ ōẇakeph
More languagesFewer languages
- competent in Telugu
- సమర్థుడు
- competent in Malayalam
- കഴിവുളള, അവകാശമുളള, പര്യാപ്തം, പോരുന്ന
- competent in Kannada
- ತಕ್ಕ, ಚೆಚ್ಚರಿಕೆಯ, ಬಲ್ಲ, ಆರ್ಪ
- competent in Malay
- cekap
- competent in Indonesian
- kompeten
- competent in Persian
- شایسته šâyeste
Examples of competent in a sentence
- That as a competent keyless citizen he had proceeded energetically from the unknown to the known through the incertitude of the void.1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
- The purpose of sharing these accounts – particularly during Women’s History Month – is to show that women, like men, can grow from bumbling neophytes to competent leaders.2019 March 17, Swanee Hunt, “My career: From bumbling neophyte to pioneering diplomat”, in CNN, archived from the original on 16 May 2024:
Antonyms of competent
Forms of competent
| comparative | more competent |
|---|---|
| superlative | most competent |
Origin of competent
From Middle English competent, conpetent, from Old French competent (modern French compétent), from Latin competens, competentem, present participle of competō (“coincide, be equal to, be capable of”). Compare Dutch competent (“competent”), German kompetent (“competent”), Danish kompetent (“competent”).
Words formed from competent
- angiocompetent
- chemocompetent
- competently
- dyscompetent
- electrocompetent
- fibrocompetent
- hypercompetent
- immunocompetent
- incompetent
- melanocompetent
- multicompetent
- neurocompetent
- noncompetent
- non-incompetent
- omnicompetent
- osmocompetent
- osteocompetent
- precompetent
- retrocompetent
- rhizocompetent
- supercompetent
- thermocompetent
- ultracompetent
Questions about competent
- What does competent mean?
- Competent means having sufficient skill, knowledge, ability, or qualifications.
- What is competent in Hindi?
- Competent in Hindi is दक्ष (dakṣ), कुशल (kuśal), निपुण (nipuṇ). See Competent meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use competent in a sentence?
- That as a competent keyless citizen he had proceeded energetically from the unknown to the known through the incertitude of the void.
- What part of speech is competent?
- Competent is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce competent?
- Competent is pronounced /ˈkɒmpətənt/.
Words near competent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: competent (page history and authors); competent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); competent (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); competent (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); competent (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); competent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-competent.ogg.
Cite this entry: “competent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/competent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.