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incompetent

adj
/ɪnˈkɒmpətənt/US

Etymology

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

  1. derived from incompetēns
  2. derived from incompetentem
  3. borrowed from incompétent

Definitions

  1. Lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.

    • Near-synonyms: incapable, inable, unable
    • Having an incompetent lawyer may be grounds for a retrial, but the lawyer in question probably doesn't know that.
    • Many Gazans scorn Fatah as corrupt and incompetent, and they dislike Hamas's overzealousness and repression.

  2. Unable to make rational decisions

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

    • Near-synonyms: dysfunctional, nonfunctioning
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. Not resistant to deformation or flow.

    2. 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.
      • "Lies!" said the tallest of the sons of Ivaldi. "I wouldn't trust those fumble-fingered incompetents to shoe a horse."

The neighborhood

Derived

immunoincompetent, incompetently, incompetentness, non-incompetent, retroincompetent

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at incompetent. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01incompetent02birth03childbirth04culmination05ended06ends07close08unavailable09ineffective

A definitional loop anchored at incompetent. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at incompetent

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA