incompetent.
Lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.
Meaning & usage
Lacking the degree of ability and responsibility necessary to do a task successfully.
Having an incompetent lawyer may be grounds for a retrial, but the lawyer in question probably doesn't know that.
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.
Opening too early during pregnancy, resulting in miscarriage or premature birth.
Not resistant to deformation or flow.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French incompétent, from Late Latin incompetentem, from Latin incompetēns, equivalent to in- + competent.
A person who is incompetent.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French incompétent, from Late Latin incompetentem, from Latin incompetēns, equivalent to in- + competent.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.