Incompetent

//ɪnˈkɒmpətənt// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who is incompetent.

    "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."

  2. 2
    someone who is not competent to take effective action wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.

    "Near-synonyms: incapable, inable, unable"

  2. 2
    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."

  3. 3
    Opening too early during pregnancy, resulting in miscarriage or premature birth.

    "Near-synonyms: dysfunctional, nonfunctioning"

  4. 4
    Not resistant to deformation or flow.
Adjective
  1. 1
    not meeting requirements wordnet
  2. 2
    not qualified or suited for a purpose wordnet
  3. 3
    legally not qualified or sufficient wordnet
  4. 4
    not doing a good job wordnet
  5. 5
    showing lack of skill or aptitude wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bunglingineffectiveunequal tounworkmanlikeabysmalarrant

Example

More examples

"The world is full of incompetent doctors."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

non-incompetent

More for "incompetent"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.