The fact that educated Americans in general no longer share understandable background knowledge is a chief cause of their inability to communicate effectively.
Source: tatoeba (19002)
Inability
//ˌɪnəˈbɪlɪti//
Synonyms for "inability" (53 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (11)
Strong matches (16)
Related words (26)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Translations
39 translations across 21 languages.
Bulgarian
1 entries- неспособност noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Central Kurdish
1 entries- ناتوانین noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Dutch
2 entries- impotentie noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- onvermogen noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Esperanto
2 entries- nekapableco noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- senpoveco noun (lack of the option to do something; powerlessness)
Finnish
2 entries- kykenemättömyys noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- kyvyttömyys noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
French
1 entries- incapacité noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
German
2 entries- Unfähigkeit noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- Unvermögen noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Gothic
1 entries- 𐌿𐌽𐌼𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Greek
1 entries- αδυναμία noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Hindi
3 entries- अक्षमता noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- असमर्थता noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- असमर्थता noun (lack of the option to do something; powerlessness)
Japanese
1 entries- 無能 noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Macedonian
1 entries- неможност noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Manx
3 entries- neuablid noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- neuchummaght noun (lack of the option to do something; powerlessness)
- neufondid noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Polish
3 entries- niemożność noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- nieumiejętność noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- niezdolność noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Portuguese
2 entries- inabilidade noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- incapacidade noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Romanian
3 entries- incapabilitate noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- incapacitate noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- neputință noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Russian
3 entries- невозмо́жность noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- неспосо́бность noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- неуме́ние noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Sanskrit
1 entries- अक्षमा noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Spanish
1 entries- incapacidad noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Swedish
1 entries- oförmåga noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Ukrainian
4 entries- невмі́ння noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- незда́тність noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
- неможли́вість noun (lack of the option to do something; powerlessness)
- неспромо́жність noun (lack of the ability to do something; incapability)
Sample sentences
12 total sentences available.
I am impatient with his inability to make decisions.
Source: tatoeba (283569)
I was surprised at her inability to do things promptly.
Source: tatoeba (308498)
Out of all the attributes of the gods, the one I find most pitiable is their inability to commit suicide.
Source: tatoeba (390063)
Showing 4 of 12 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.