English

Noun

incompetence ‎(usually uncountable, plural incompetences)

1. Inability to perform; lack of competence; ineptitude.
   • 1851: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

     ... at the head of a crew, too, chiefly made up of mongrel renegades, and castaways, and cannibals--morally enfeebled also, by the incompetence of mere unaided virtue or right-mindedness in Starbuck

   • 1949: George Orwell, 1984

     Winston did not know why Withers had been disgraced. Perhaps it was for corruption or incompetence. Perhaps Big Brother was merely getting rid of a too-popular subordinate.

   • 1974: Ursula Leguin, The Dispossessed

     The factory where she worked was a poisonous mass of incompetence, favoritism, and sabotage.

Translations

Related terms

• competency
• incompetency