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Webster 1913 Edition


Competency

{

Com′pe-tence

,

Com′pe-ten-cy

}
,
Noun.
[Cf. F.
compétence
, from L.
competentia
agreement.]
1.
The state of being competent; fitness; ability; adequacy; power.
The loan demonstrates, in regard to instrumental resources, the
competency
of this kingdom to the assertion of the common cause.
Burke.
To make them act zealously is not in the
competence
of law.
Burke.
2.
Property or means sufficient for the necessaries and conveniences of life; sufficiency without excess.
Reason’s whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words – health, peace, and
competence
.
Pope.
Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but
competency
lives longer.
Shakespeare
3.
(Law)
(a)
Legal capacity or qualifications; fitness;
as, the
competency
of a witness or of a evidence
.
(b)
Right or authority; legal power or capacity to take cognizance of a cause;
as, the
competence
of a judge or court
.
Kent.

Definition 2024


competency

competency

English

Noun

competency (plural competencies)

  1. (obsolete) A sufficient supply (of).
    • 1612, John Smith, Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia, in Kupperman 1988, p. 178:
      the next day they returned unsuspected, leaving their confederates to follow, and in the interim, to convay them a competencie of all things they could []
    • Ambrose Bierce
      [] it would appear that before taking this precaution Mr. Bree must have had the thrift to remove a modest competency of the gold []
  2. (obsolete) A sustainable income.
    • Shakespeare
      Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.
    • 1915, W.S. Maugham, "Of Human Bondage", chapter 116:
      He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it. He knew that the lack made a man petty, mean, grasping; it distorted his character and caused him to view the world from a vulgar angle; when you had to consider every penny, money became of grotesque importance: you needed a competency to rate it at its proper value.
  3. The ability to perform some task; competence.
    • Burke
      The loan demonstrates, in regard to instrumental resources, the competency of this kingdom to the assertion of the common cause.
    • 2004, Bill Clinton, My Life
      By the year 2000, American students will leave grades four, eight, and twelve having demonstrated competency in challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, history, and geography....
  4. (law) Meeting specified qualifications to perform.
  5. (linguistics) Implicit knowledge of a language’s structure.

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:skill

Translations