Incompetent
adjective
Not having or showing the necessary skills to do something well.
He was incompetent at his job and was often late with assignments.
Often appears as...
- incompetent at
- incompetent in
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Not legally capable or qualified.
The judge declared the defendant incompetent to stand trial due to mental illness.
Often appears as...
- legally incompetent
- declared incompetent
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Technical
adjective
Not displaying physical or mental ability.
The patient’s incompetent immune response became a concern for the doctors.
Often appears as...
- medically incompetent
- incompetent response
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Technical
adjective
Not having or showing the necessary skills to do something well.
He was incompetent at his job and was often late with assignments.
Often appears as...
- incompetent at
- incompetent in
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Not legally capable or qualified.
The judge declared the defendant incompetent to stand trial due to mental illness.
Often appears as...
- legally incompetent
- declared incompetent
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Technical
adjective
Not displaying physical or mental ability.
The patient’s incompetent immune response became a concern for the doctors.
Often appears as...
- medically incompetent
- incompetent response
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Technical
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Negative Connotation
Using 'incompetent' can sound harsh; it's a strong criticism of someone's ability.
His incompetent handling of the project caused a lot of problems.
Pro Tip 2/3Workplace Context
Often used to describe professional shortcomings, implying lack of required skills.
An incompetent employee may jeopardize a team's success.
Pro Tip 3/3Careful Usage
Be mindful when calling someone 'incompetent', as it can be offensive and demoralizing.
Her teammates whispered about her being incompetent.
Pro Tip 1/3Negative Connotation
Using 'incompetent' can sound harsh; it's a strong criticism of someone's ability.
His incompetent handling of the project caused a lot of problems.
Pro Tip 2/3Workplace Context
Often used to describe professional shortcomings, implying lack of required skills.
An incompetent employee may jeopardize a team's success.
Pro Tip 3/3Careful Usage
Be mindful when calling someone 'incompetent', as it can be offensive and demoralizing.
Her teammates whispered about her being incompetent.
Pro Tip 1/3Negative Connotation
Using 'incompetent' can sound harsh; it's a strong criticism of someone's ability.
His incompetent handling of the project caused a lot of problems.
Pro Tip 2/3Workplace Context
Often used to describe professional shortcomings, implying lack of required skills.
An incompetent employee may jeopardize a team's success.
Pro Tip 3/3Careful Usage
Be mindful when calling someone 'incompetent', as it can be offensive and demoralizing.
Her teammates whispered about her being incompetent.
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Video examples
Are you a giver or a...
starts with a request. But a lot of people don't ask. They don't want to look incompetent, they don't know where to turn, they don't want to burden others. Yet if nobody ever asks for help, you have a lot of frustrated givers in your organization who would love to step up and contribute, if they only knew who could benefit and how.
Video examples
Thinking your way out of...
genuinely find useful that last part is really important because it speaks to a contradiction in impostor logic because when you think about it what we're really saying is other people are so stupid they don't realize we're incompetent to imagine if you'd come up to my friend and said that was great and
Video examples
History vs. Vladimir...
an incompetent bourgeois failure. He even launched another failed offensive in the war, where Russia had already lost so much, instead of ending it like the people wanted." "It was a constitutional social democratic government, the most progressive of its time. And it could have succeeded eventually
Video examples
History vs. Andrew...
you introduced the spoils system, replacing hundreds of perfectly good federal employees with incompetent party loyalists?" "Your Honor, the President did no such thing. He tried to institute rotation in office to avoid any profiteering or funny business. It was the rest of the party
Video examples
Your body language may...
of real physician-patient interactions, their judgments of the physician's niceness predict whether or not that physician will be sued. So it doesn't have to do so much with whether or not that physician was incompetent, but do we like that person and how they interacted?
Video examples
The psychology of...
But this time, we also asked them what did they think about other participants who disagree with them on those issues. Are they smart or incompetent? Are they reasonable or are they biased? The better-than-average group said anybody who disagrees with them
Video examples
History vs. Napoleon...
with their anti-Catholic extremism and nonstop executions of everyone who disagreed with them. And The Directory that replaced them was an unstable and incompetent oligarchy. They needed a strong leader who could govern wisely and justly."
Video examples
How I discovered DNA -...
Rosen Franklin came up and sort of laughed at our model they said it was lousy and it was so we were told to build no more models we were incompetent and so we didn't build any models and
Video examples
Jared Diamond: How...
because any idiot can now multiply eight-digit numbers accurately and instantly with a pocket calculator. Conversely, I at age 75 am incompetent at skills essential for everyday life.
Video examples
Bay of Pigs PIPE Killing...
it's a catastrophe the one hour here support that I ordered got screwed up the two units didn't connect because a one hour time difference he's incompetent son of a they can't
Video examples
Are you a giver or a...
starts with a request. But a lot of people don't ask. They don't want to look incompetent, they don't know where to turn, they don't want to burden others. Yet if nobody ever asks for help, you have a lot of frustrated givers in your organization who would love to step up and contribute, if they only knew who could benefit and how.
Video examples
Thinking your way out of...
genuinely find useful that last part is really important because it speaks to a contradiction in impostor logic because when you think about it what we're really saying is other people are so stupid they don't realize we're incompetent to imagine if you'd come up to my friend and said that was great and
Video examples
History vs. Vladimir...
an incompetent bourgeois failure. He even launched another failed offensive in the war, where Russia had already lost so much, instead of ending it like the people wanted." "It was a constitutional social democratic government, the most progressive of its time. And it could have succeeded eventually
Video examples
History vs. Andrew...
you introduced the spoils system, replacing hundreds of perfectly good federal employees with incompetent party loyalists?" "Your Honor, the President did no such thing. He tried to institute rotation in office to avoid any profiteering or funny business. It was the rest of the party
Video examples
Your body language may...
of real physician-patient interactions, their judgments of the physician's niceness predict whether or not that physician will be sued. So it doesn't have to do so much with whether or not that physician was incompetent, but do we like that person and how they interacted?
Video examples
The psychology of...
But this time, we also asked them what did they think about other participants who disagree with them on those issues. Are they smart or incompetent? Are they reasonable or are they biased? The better-than-average group said anybody who disagrees with them
Video examples
History vs. Napoleon...
with their anti-Catholic extremism and nonstop executions of everyone who disagreed with them. And The Directory that replaced them was an unstable and incompetent oligarchy. They needed a strong leader who could govern wisely and justly."
Video examples
How I discovered DNA -...
Rosen Franklin came up and sort of laughed at our model they said it was lousy and it was so we were told to build no more models we were incompetent and so we didn't build any models and
Video examples
Jared Diamond: How...
because any idiot can now multiply eight-digit numbers accurately and instantly with a pocket calculator. Conversely, I at age 75 am incompetent at skills essential for everyday life.
Video examples
Bay of Pigs PIPE Killing...
it's a catastrophe the one hour here support that I ordered got screwed up the two units didn't connect because a one hour time difference he's incompetent son of a they can't
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Kurt Eichenwald
American Editor
Too often, it seems, conservatives have scorned experts as incompetent, biased, or otherwise worth ignoring because they came up with answers that didn't fit their politically desired answer. Often, they proclaim experts have a liberal bias. Of course, plenty of Democrats have voted for conservative ideas, but that is beside the point.
Quote examples
Nina Jacobson
American Businesswoman
As a studio executive, I took the approach that people are competent until proven otherwise. But when you make a movie, because there is so little time to fix things when they break, you have to almost come to it with the mindset that everyone is incompetent until proven otherwise.
Quote examples
Emile Durkheim
French Sociologist
There is a collective as well as an individual humor inclining peoples to sadness or cheerfulness, making them see things in bright or somber lights. In fact, only society can pass a collective opinion on the value of human life; for this the individual is incompetent.
Quote examples
Marie Osmond
American Musician
You just need to be honest with how you're feeling. But, a lot of women are afraid of it because they think, 'Oh, they are going to take my baby away. They're gonna call me incompetent. I'm going to lose my job. I've got to be tough, it's a man's world.
Quote examples
Vivek Agnihotri
Indian Director
Nobody has a problem if you promote your child, even they are incompetent or have no merit. It's fine, it's your child, your money. But the problem comes when you destroy my career to protect your child's or your friend's career.
Quote examples
Campbell Brown
American Journalist
Put together, what we want is a system that supports, protects, and properly pays good teachers and makes it possible in a responsible and fair way to remove teachers judged to be incompetent or abusive - that's it.
Quote examples
Vincent Bugliosi
American Author
I start out with the assumption that a lawyer in a criminal case is going to be incompetent - substantially so. I find my assumption to be rarely wrong. Yet society starts out with the very opposite assumption.
Quote examples
Jeremy Denk
American Musician
It's long been my dream to have myself declared incompetent so I could just practice all day, and blog, and not have to take care of any normal life things.
Quote examples
Michael Palin
British Comedian
I'd got over playing a character. People accepted who I was, and if I was incompetent and useless, they felt quite endeared to me.
Quote examples
Dave Matthews
South African Musician
In so many areas of life, I'm a spaz and incompetent.
Quote examples
Kurt Eichenwald
American Editor
Too often, it seems, conservatives have scorned experts as incompetent, biased, or otherwise worth ignoring because they came up with answers that didn't fit their politically desired answer. Often, they proclaim experts have a liberal bias. Of course, plenty of Democrats have voted for conservative ideas, but that is beside the point.
Quote examples
Nina Jacobson
American Businesswoman
As a studio executive, I took the approach that people are competent until proven otherwise. But when you make a movie, because there is so little time to fix things when they break, you have to almost come to it with the mindset that everyone is incompetent until proven otherwise.
Quote examples
Emile Durkheim
French Sociologist
There is a collective as well as an individual humor inclining peoples to sadness or cheerfulness, making them see things in bright or somber lights. In fact, only society can pass a collective opinion on the value of human life; for this the individual is incompetent.
Quote examples
Marie Osmond
American Musician
You just need to be honest with how you're feeling. But, a lot of women are afraid of it because they think, 'Oh, they are going to take my baby away. They're gonna call me incompetent. I'm going to lose my job. I've got to be tough, it's a man's world.
Quote examples
Vivek Agnihotri
Indian Director
Nobody has a problem if you promote your child, even they are incompetent or have no merit. It's fine, it's your child, your money. But the problem comes when you destroy my career to protect your child's or your friend's career.
Quote examples
Campbell Brown
American Journalist
Put together, what we want is a system that supports, protects, and properly pays good teachers and makes it possible in a responsible and fair way to remove teachers judged to be incompetent or abusive - that's it.
Quote examples
Vincent Bugliosi
American Author
I start out with the assumption that a lawyer in a criminal case is going to be incompetent - substantially so. I find my assumption to be rarely wrong. Yet society starts out with the very opposite assumption.
Quote examples
Jeremy Denk
American Musician
It's long been my dream to have myself declared incompetent so I could just practice all day, and blog, and not have to take care of any normal life things.
Quote examples
Michael Palin
British Comedian
I'd got over playing a character. People accepted who I was, and if I was incompetent and useless, they felt quite endeared to me.
Quote examples
Dave Matthews
South African Musician
In so many areas of life, I'm a spaz and incompetent.
Example 1 of 10
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