Meaning & use
professional incompetence
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountableformal
A lack of the skill, knowledge, or care that a person's job or profession requires.
Grammar: Uncountable, so it takes a singular verb and no article: professional incompetence was found.
Patterns
- allege professional incompetence
- a finding of professional incompetence
- dismiss someone for professional incompetence
The hospital was criticized for failing to investigate repeated cases of professional incompetence.
The tribunal found professional incompetence and removed him from the register.
Lawyers argued that the delay was caused by professional incompetence, not bad luck.
Common combinations
- gross professional incompetence
- The report described the failure as gross professional incompetence.
- a finding of professional incompetence
- The hearing ended with a formal finding of professional incompetence.
- allege professional incompetence
- The patient's family alleged professional incompetence against two doctors.
- dismiss someone for professional incompetence
- She was dismissed for professional incompetence after the audit.
- a case of professional incompetence
- The review called it a clear case of professional incompetence.
Synonyms and how they differ
- negligence
- Negligence is a legal term for failing to take proper care; it often overlaps with incompetence but stresses carelessness rather than lack of ability.
- ineptitude
- Ineptitude is a stronger, more disapproving word for clumsy, hopeless performance in any activity, not only at work.
- malpractice
- Malpractice means a professional's harmful mistake that is legally wrong, especially in medicine or law; incompetence itself need not be illegal.
Opposites
Word family
- incompetent adjective
- Not having the skill or ability to do a job properly.
- incompetently adverb
- In a way that shows a lack of skill or ability.
- incompetence noun
- The general quality of being unable to do something well.
Commonly confused: professional incompetence or incompetence?
professional incompetence vs incompetence
Incompetence alone can describe anyone's lack of skill; professional incompetence specifically refers to the standards expected in someone's job or profession.
Practice
The disciplinary panel concluded that the surgeon's repeated errors amounted to ______.
Choose one answer.
The noun is uncountable, so it needs no article and no plural: professional incompetence. 'A professional incompetence' wrongly adds an article, and 'professionally incompetent' is an adjective phrase that cannot follow 'amounted to'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “professional incompetence”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.