incompetent
Syllables: in·com·pe·tentUS/ɪnˈkɒmpətənt/
incompetent adjective: lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.
Adjective
incompetent (comparative more incompetent, superlative most incompetent)
- Lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.
- Near-synonyms: incapable, inable, unable
- Having an incompetent lawyer may be grounds for a retrial, but the lawyer in question probably doesn't know that.
- Synonyms:
- noncompetent, uncompetent, inept, ineffective, abysmal, atrocious, awful, bad, chronic, coarse
- Antonyms:
- competent, capable, able, artful, habile, accomplished, adept, adroit, apt, consummate
- Unable to make rational decisions; insane or otherwise cognitively impaired.
- The charged was judged incompetent to stand trial, at least until his medication started working.
- Opening too early during pregnancy, resulting in miscarriage or premature birth.
- Near-synonyms: dysfunctional, nonfunctioning
- Synonyms:
- dysfunctional, nonfunctioning
- Not resistant to deformation or flow.
Noun
incompetent (plural incompetents)
- A person who is incompetent.
- But besides these incompetents, there was always a train of camp followers, —women who followed the camp, beggars, and criminals, whose number was often greater than the number of fighting soldiers.1915, Henry Smith Williams, Edward Huntington Williams, Modern Warfare, page 11
- "Lies!" said the tallest of the sons of Ivaldi. "I wouldn't trust those fumble-fingered incompetents to shoe a horse."2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 34
incompetent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
incompetent in Hindi
- unskilled, lacking normally expected degree of ability
- नालायक nālāyak
incompetent in Tamil
- தகுதியற்ற திறனிலா, தகுதியில்லாத, திறமையில்லாத, செயலாற்றாமை, தகுதியின்மை
incompetent in Marathi
- incompetent, stupid
- नालायक nālāyak
incompetent in Urdu
- incompetent, stupid
- نا لائق nālāiq
- incompetent
- عاری 'ārī
More languagesFewer languages
- incompetent in Bengali
- বেওয়াকেফ beōẇakeph
- incompetent in Malayalam
- കഴിവില്ലാത്ത, യോഗ്യതയില്ലാത്ത, അപ്രാപ്തനായ, പിടിപ്പുകെട്ട
- incompetent in Kannada
- ಅಸಮರ್ಥವಾದ, ಅದಕ್ಷ, ಅನರ್ಹ, ಆರದ
- incompetent in Sanskrit
- अशक्त aśakta
- incompetent in Thai
- ไม่ได้เรื่อง, ไม่เอาไหน mâi-ao-nǎi
Examples of incompetent in a sentence
- His secretaryship was marred by accusations of corruption, but the next secretary of state was called incompetent.
- I’ve never met someone so incompetent. He’s only fit for the knacker’s yard.
- The angry captain typified all new sailors as incompetent.
Synonyms of incompetent
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of incompetent
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more incompetent |
| superlative | most incompetent |
| Noun | |
| plural | incompetents |
Origin of incompetent
Borrowed from French incompétent, from Late Latin incompetentem, from Latin incompetēns, equivalent to in- + competent.
Words formed from incompetent
Questions about incompetent
- What does incompetent mean?
- Incompetent means lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.
- What is incompetent in Hindi?
- Incompetent in Hindi is नालायक (nālāyak). See Incompetent meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is incompetent?
- Incompetent can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce incompetent?
- Incompetent is pronounced /ɪnˈkɒmpətənt/ (US).
Words near incompetent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incompetent (page history and authors); incompetent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); नालायक (Marathi) (page history and authors); عاری (Urdu) (page history and authors); incompetent (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); incompetent (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-incompetent.wav.
Cite this entry: “incompetent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incompetent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.