incompetence

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Noun 1.1.1 Translations 1.1.2 Quotations 1.1.3 Related terms

[edit] English

[edit] Noun

incompetence (uncountable)

1. Inability to perform; lack of competence; ineptitude.

[edit] Translations

[edit] Quotations

• 1851: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

  ... at the head of a crew, too, chiefly made up of mongrel renegades, and castaways, and cannibals--morally enfeebled also, by the incompetence of mere unaided virtue or right-mindedness in Starbuck

• 1949: George Orwell, 1984

  Winston did not know why Withers had been disgraced. Perhaps it was for corruption or incompetence. Perhaps Big Brother was merely getting rid of a too-popular subordinate.

• 1974: Ursula Leguin, The Dispossessed

  The factory where she worked was a poisonous mass of incompetence, favoritism, and sabotage.

[edit] Related terms

• competency
• incompentency