as in inability
the lack of sufficient ability, power, or means
her entrenched incapacity for decision-making doesn't make her a very good boss
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Recent Examples of incapacity
The President’s ironclad hegemony had become a pathetic circus of blunders until the IMF deal, threatening to prove campaign predictions of amateurism and incapacity to govern true, just as the campaign for the midterm elections gets under way.
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Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes.com, 20 Apr. 2025
The conjunction of crushing needs and the state's incapacity created fertile ground for NGOs: even before the quake, there were around 10,000 of them in the country.
—Paul Collier, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2011
But that has historically been interpreted as misconduct or incapacity, not policy disagreements.
—Nik Popli, Time, 17 Apr. 2025
Vargas Llosa, who died in Lima this past weekend at the age of 89, nurtured a lifelong obsession with his native Peru: its corrupt political ecosystem, its inequality, its incapacity to make good on its promise.
—Ilan Stavans, The Atlantic, 15 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incapacity
Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes.com, 20 Apr. 2025
The conjunction of crushing needs and the state's incapacity created fertile ground for NGOs: even before the quake, there were around 10,000 of them in the country.
—Paul Collier, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2011
But that has historically been interpreted as misconduct or incapacity, not policy disagreements.
—Nik Popli, Time, 17 Apr. 2025
Vargas Llosa, who died in Lima this past weekend at the age of 89, nurtured a lifelong obsession with his native Peru: its corrupt political ecosystem, its inequality, its incapacity to make good on its promise.
—Ilan Stavans, The Atlantic, 15 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incapacity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for incapacity
inability
Noun
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Fever head coach Stephanie White was upset with how the referees officiated the game and about the inability to take control.—
Ryan Gaydos,
FOXNews.com,
18 June 2025
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Predicate orders are based on the abandonment, abuse or neglect of that child by one or both parents, and the inability to reunify with one or both parents, based on those findings.—
Taylor Romine,
CNN Money,
18 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Incapacity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/incapacity. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
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