Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The quality or state of being incompetent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as incompetency.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being incompetent; lack of physical, intellectual, or moral ability; lack of qualifications or training (for a particular task); insufficiency; inadequacy.
  • noun (Law) Lack of competency or legal fitness; incapacity; disqualification, as of a person to be heard as a witness, or to act as a juror, or of a judge to try a cause.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Inability to perform; lack of competence; ineptitude.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun lack of physical or intellectual ability or qualifications
  • noun inability of a part or organ to function properly

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The only reason that this incompetence is allowed is by the administrations distractions and the media love affair with Mr. Obama.

    The Honduras article Sen. Kerry (D, MA) didn’t want you to see. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState 2009

  • Two retired generals today blasted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for what they call incompetence and bad leadership.

    CNN Transcript Sep 25, 2006 2006

  • The letter added: Sorry, but the word 'incompetence' comes to mind for those responsible for this blunder.

    BBC News - Home 2011

  • In this interview Harry discusses the SECs failure, goes after the SEC for what he terms their incompetence, how he, his family and his teams lives were threatened, the fact that Bernie Madoff was a mob boss, Greenspans failure as Fed Chairman, he knew Madoff was a fraud, criminal banking syndicates, how ruthless Madoff was, the devastation and heartbreak in the wake of the fraud and much more.

    WN.com - Financial News 2010

  • In this interview Harry discusses the SECs failure, goes after the SEC for what he terms their incompetence, how he, his family and his teams lives were threatened, the fact that Bernie Madoff was a mob boss, Greenspans failure as Fed Chairman, he knew Madoff was a fraud, criminal banking syndicates, how ruthless Madoff was, the devastation and heartbreak in the wake of the fraud and much more.

    WN.com - Financial News 2010

  • Harry discusses the SECs failure, goes after the SEC for what he terms their incompetence, how he, his family and his teams lives were threatened, the fact that Bernie Madoff was a mob boss, Greenspans failure as Fed Chairman, he knew Madoff was a fraud, criminal banking syndicates, how ruthless Madoff was, the devastation and heartbreak in the wake of the fraud and much more.

    WN.com - Financial News 2010

  • Harry discusses the SECs failure, goes after the SEC for what he terms their incompetence, how he, his family and his teams lives were threatened, the fact that Bernie Madoff was a mob boss, Greenspans failure as Fed Chairman, he knew Madoff was a fraud, criminal banking syndicates, how ruthless Madoff was, the devastation and heartbreak in the wake of the fraud and much more.

    WN.com - Financial News 2010

  • Government incompetence is something that terrorists and other criminals should keep in mind, and not take it for granted that a reasonably benign government will successfully figure out how to capture them without killing them.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » More on Israeli Incompetence 2010

  • This kind of institutional Governmental incompetence is why we need to privatize assassination!

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Assassination, Self-Defense, and the Koh Speech 2010

  • Sarcastro: This kind of institutional Governmental incompetence is why we need to privatize assassination!

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Assassination, Self-Defense, and the Koh Speech 2010

Comments

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  • I was met with a triple whammy of this whilst getting the Jesus phone. The two minute task of filling in a web form stretched to the better part of an hour as layer upon layer of management failed to understand their own computer system.

    July 11, 2008

  • What's the Jesus phone? WYD special?

    July 11, 2008

  • It's the new iPhone. Which I don't have, but I've had the beta version of the iPhone OS 2.0 on a dev phone at work for the past two weeks, and it's a big improvement, even on the old phone.

    It amuses me that we're talking about this on "incompetence."

    July 11, 2008

  • Today, I visited an Apple Store. The computer floor. And watched outside. The iPhone Army.

    July 12, 2008