incompetent

See also: incompétent

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French incompétent, from Late Latin incompetentem, from Latin incompetēns, equivalent to in- +‎ competent.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkɒmpətənt/
• Hyphenation: in‧com‧pe‧tent

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

incompetent (comparative more incompetent, superlative most incompetent)

1. Lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.

   Synonyms: noncompetent, uncompetent, inept; see also Thesaurus:bad

   Antonyms: competent, capable, able; see also Thesaurus:skilled

   Hyponyms: (usually hyponymous) unskilled, unskillful, untalented, inexperienced, nonexperienced, unexperienced

   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.

   • 2009 January 8, Nicholas D. Kristof, “The Gaza Boomerang”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Many Gazans scorn Fatah as corrupt and incompetent, and they dislike Hamas's overzealousness and repression.

   1. 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.

   2. (medicine, of the cervix) Opening too early during pregnancy, resulting in miscarriage or premature birth.

      Near-synonyms: dysfunctional, nonfunctioning

   3. (geology) Not resistant to deformation or flow.

Derived terms

• incompetently (adverb)

Related terms

• incompetence
• incompetency

Translations

unskilled, lacking normally expected degree of ability

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: անձեռնհաս (hy) (anjeṙnhas)
• Azerbaijani: səriştəsiz
• Belarusian: некампетэ́нтны (njekampjeténtny)
• Bengali: বেওয়াকেফ (bn) (beōẇakeph)
• Bulgarian: неспособен (bg) (nesposoben), неумел (bg) (neumel), некомпетентен (bg) (nekompetenten)
• Catalan: incompetent (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: incompetent (nl)
• Esperanto: malkompetenta, nekompetenta
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: epäpätevä (fi), taitamaton (fi)
• French: incompétent (fr)
• Galician: incompetente
• Georgian: არაკომპეტენტური (araḳomṗeṭenṭuri), უმეცარი (umecari), უუნარო (uunaro), უნიჭო (unič̣o)
• German: inkompetent (de), unfähig (de)
• Greek: αναρμόδιος (el) (anarmódios)
• Hindi: नालायक (nālāyak)
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Japanese: できない (ja) (dekinai), 無能な (ja) (munō na)
• Latin: inscitus
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: hēhē, hakorea, koretake
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: inkompetent

  Nynorsk: inkompetent

• Occitan: incompetent
• Polish: niekompetentny (pl)
• Portuguese: incompetente (pt)
• Romanian: incompetent (ro)
• Russian: некомпете́нтный (ru) (nekompeténtnyj)
• Sanskrit: अशक्त (sa) (aśakta)
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: incompetente (es)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: некомпете́нтний (nekompeténtnyj)

unable to make rational decisions, insane or otherwise cognitively impaired

• Armenian: անմեղսունակ (hy) (anmeġsunak)
• Bulgarian: невменяем (bg) (nevmenjaem)
• Catalan: incompetent (ca)
• Finnish: kykenemätön (fi), kyvytön (fi), pystymätön (fi), vajaavaltainen (fi)
• Georgian: შეურაცხადი (šeuracxadi)
• Maori: koretake
• Russian: невменя́емый (ru) (nevmenjájemyj)

Noun

incompetent (plural incompetents)

1. A person who is incompetent.
   • 1915, Henry Smith Williams, Edward Huntington Williams, Modern Warfare, page 11:

     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.

   • 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 34:

     "Lies!" said the tallest of the sons of Ivaldi. "I wouldn't trust those fumble-fingered incompetents to shoe a horse."

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin incompetentem. First attested in 1696.

Adjective

incompetent m or f (masculine and feminine plural incompetents)

1. incompetent

   Antonym: competent

Related terms

• incompetència

Further reading

• “incompetent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “incompetent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “incompetent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

Likely borrowed, ultimately from Latin incompetēns. Equivalent to in- +‎ .

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪŋ.kɔm.pəˈtɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧com‧pe‧tent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Adjective

incompetent (comparative incompetenter, superlative incompetentst)

1. incompetent

Declension

Declension of incompetent
uninflected	incompetent
inflected	incompetente
comparative	incompetenter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		incompetent	incompetenter	het incompetentst het incompetentste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	incompetente	incompetentere	incompetentste
	n. sing.	incompetent	incompetenter	incompetentste
	plural	incompetente	incompetentere	incompetentste
definite		incompetente	incompetentere	incompetentste
partitive		incompetents	incompetenters	—

Related terms

• incompetentie

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin incompetēns.

Adjective

incompetent m (feminine singular incompetenta, masculine plural incompetents, feminine plural incompetentas)

1. incompetent

   Antonym: competent

Related terms

• incompeténcia

Further reading

• Joan de Cantalausa (2006) Diccionari general occitan a partir dels parlars lengadocians‎^[2], 2 edition, →ISBN, page 560.
• Diccionari General de la Lenga Occitana, L’Academia occitana – Consistòri del Gai Saber, 2008-2024, page 339.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French incompétent. Equivalent to in- +‎ competent.

Adjective

incompetent m or n (feminine singular incompetentă, masculine plural incompetenți, feminine and neuter plural incompetente)

1. incompetent

Declension

Declension of incompetent

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	incompetent		incompetentă	incompetenți	incompetente
	definite	incompetentul		incompetenta	incompetenții	incompetentele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	incompetent		incompetente	incompetenți	incompetente
	definite	incompetentului		incompetentei	incompetenților	incompetentelor