Meaning & use
incompetent
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
Not having the skill or ability needed to do a job or task well.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be; often followed by at or as: incompetent at managing money.
Patterns
- incompetent at something
- incompetent as something
The incompetent contractor left the roof leaking.
She felt incompetent during her first week as a nurse.
They fired the manager for being incompetent at planning budgets.
nouncountabledisapproving
A person who lacks the ability to do their work properly.
Grammar: Countable and harsh: a bunch of incompetents.
The board accused the previous team of being a group of incompetents.
He called the new hires incompetents after the third error.
Nobody wants to work with incompetents on a safety-critical project.
adjectiveafter a verblegal
In law, not legally able to act or give evidence, for example because of age or mental state.
Grammar: Usually appears after a verb in legal phrases: found incompetent to stand trial.
Patterns
- incompetent to do something
The court found him incompetent to stand trial.
A minor may be treated as incompetent to sign a contract.
The witness was ruled incompetent to testify.
Word forms
| comparative | more incompetent |
|---|---|
| superlative | most incompetent |
| plural | incompetents |
Common combinations
- grossly incompetent
- The inspector found the work grossly incompetent.
- hopelessly incompetent
- He seemed hopelessly incompetent at anything mechanical.
- incompetent management
- Incompetent management ruined a promising company.
- incompetent at
- I'm incompetent at remembering names.
- deemed incompetent
- The doctor was deemed incompetent by the review board.
Synonyms and how they differ
- inept
- Inept suggests clumsy, awkward failure, while incompetent is a more general judgment of poor ability.
- unskilled
- Unskilled only says a person lacks training and is not an insult like incompetent.
- useless
- Useless is informal and blunt, stronger and less precise than incompetent.
- inexperienced
- Inexperienced is kinder because it implies a person can improve with time.
Opposites
Word family
- incompetence noun
- lack of skill or ability
- incompetently adverb
- in a way that shows poor ability
- competent adjective
- having enough skill
- competence noun
- the ability to do something well
Commonly confused: incompetent or incompetent?
incompetent vs incompetent
Do not confuse it with 'incompetant', a common misspelling; the ending is -ent.
Practice
The report blamed the delay on an ___ manager who kept losing important files.
Choose one answer.
Incompetent describes a person lacking ability. Incomplete describes things, impatient is about waiting, and inconsistent is about changing behavior.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “incompetent”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.