incompetence

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See also: incompétence

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French incompétence.

Noun[edit]

incompetence ‎(usually uncountable, plural incompetences)

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

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Related terms[edit]

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