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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Recent Examples of incompetent
Frank Rizzo, Variety, 27 Apr. 2025
Image In response to the letter becoming public, the Transportation Department made the remarkable decision to remove those lawyers from the case and released a statement suggesting that the team was either incompetent or motivated by politics.
—Stefanos Chen, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2025
However, problematic ones try to control every outcome, usually out of fear of failure or appearing incompetent.
—Sho Dewan, Forbes.com, 26 Apr. 2025
This was—this was the most incompetent president in history.
—Time Staff, Time, 25 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incompetent
Adjective
But Elmer is equally incompetent there, too, robbing the wrong train, failing at safecracking, miscalculating explosives and getting ignobly killed by lawmen in an Oklahoma shootout in 1911.
—Frank Rizzo, Variety, 27 Apr. 2025
Image In response to the letter becoming public, the Transportation Department made the remarkable decision to remove those lawyers from the case and released a statement suggesting that the team was either incompetent or motivated by politics.
—Stefanos Chen, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2025
However, problematic ones try to control every outcome, usually out of fear of failure or appearing incompetent.
—Sho Dewan, Forbes.com, 26 Apr. 2025
This was—this was the most incompetent president in history.
—Time Staff, Time, 25 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incompetent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for incompetent
Adjective
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That said, to be displaced is to be object, material, pushed across borders, overloaded into boats, stuffed into unfit vehicles, herded over mountains by smugglers.—
Tim Brinkhof,
JSTOR Daily,
21 May 2025
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When Eleanor gives birth to a baby named Lily and—in Ruth’s eyes—proves unfit to care for her, Ruth decides to raise the girl alone.—
Sophia Stewart,
The Atlantic,
9 May 2025
Adjective
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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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Bears are betting the president is incapable of doing either.—
Jon Markman,
Forbes.com,
19 May 2025
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Dakota Johnson, queen of all nepo babies, is incapable of being boring.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
18 May 2025
Noun
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Features will include a butcher shop, specialty cheese shop and fresh flower market in addition to produce, seafood, bakery, prepared foods and grocery departments, the release said.—
Tess Kenny,
Chicago Tribune,
9 May 2025
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Proteins come from local butchers, seafood mongers, etc.—
Rachel Dube,
Forbes.com,
6 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Incompetent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/incompetent. Accessed 25 May. 2025.
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