as in unfit
lacking qualities (as knowledge, skill, or ability) required to do a job
an incompetent carpenter had built the deck, and the railings were loose already
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of incompetent
Dan Swift, Foreign Affairs, 30 Sep. 2025
He was declared mentally incompetent earlier this month by Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker after more than a year of efforts to restore his competency.
—Kevin Grasha, Cincinnati Enquirer, 29 Sep. 2025
California, with its weak and incompetent Governor [Gavin Newsom], has been particularly hard hit!
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 29 Sep. 2025
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Laura Gonzalez-Marques found Grafe incompetent to stand trial in March.
—Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 26 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incompetent
Noun
Although Beijing has outcompeted Washington in Myanmar up to this point, the junta’s woefully incompetent management of its currency and foreign reserves presents an opportunity for the United States to recalibrate its approach to the country.
—Dan Swift, Foreign Affairs, 30 Sep. 2025
He was declared mentally incompetent earlier this month by Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker after more than a year of efforts to restore his competency.
—Kevin Grasha, Cincinnati Enquirer, 29 Sep. 2025
California, with its weak and incompetent Governor [Gavin Newsom], has been particularly hard hit!
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 29 Sep. 2025
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Laura Gonzalez-Marques found Grafe incompetent to stand trial in March.
—Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 26 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incompetent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for incompetent
Adjective
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But rivals like former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and former California State Controller Betty Yee are already framing her as unfit for office.—
Jesus Mesa,
MSNBC Newsweek,
10 Oct. 2025
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Arrived unfit and has recently been injured.—
Tim Spiers,
New York Times,
7 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Mix Materials The beauty in the unfitted kitchen aesthetic is found in its collected look.—
Patricia Shannon,
Better Homes & Gardens,
6 May 2025
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The venerable American clan at the center of the narrator’s reminiscences are wholly unfitted to the modern world and no longer endowed with the fortune that one of them brought home long ago on clipper ships.—
Daniel Akst,
WSJ,
2 Sep. 2022
Adjective
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Movies like Eddington and The Mastermind also render their white male protagonists as ill-prepared and ineffectual numbskulls incapable of confronting their era’s racial and social politics.—
Robert Daniels,
Time,
10 Oct. 2025
-
Domestic treble winners, WSL champions six years running, yet ineffably incapable of finding triumph in Europe.—
Megan Feringa,
New York Times,
7 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Some of these attractions in the maze include a biohazard unit, a butcher shop, a poacher camp and a witch’s cauldron.—
Abby Hamblin,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
16 Oct. 2025
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Ronald Exantus, 42, was freed from a Kentucky prison last week after serving eight years behind bars for a crime in 2015 in which he was accused of entering an unlocked residence and stabbing 6-year-old Logan Tipton, resulting in his death, with a butcher knife taken from the kitchen.—
Mason Leath,
ABC News,
13 Oct. 2025
Noun
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For more instant gratification, grab a muddler (or the back of a wooden spoon or the end of a rolling pin).—
The New York Times News Service Syndicate,
Denver Post,
19 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Incompetent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/incompetent. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.
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