1
as in incompetent
lacking qualities (as knowledge, skill, or ability) required to do a job
an unskillful editor can be worse than none at all
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in inexperienced
lacking or showing a lack of expert skill
some painfully unskillful playing by the band's guitarist
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of unskillful
It was intended to be a mockery of the way White people danced, though plantation owners often interpreted slaves' movements as unskillful attempts to be like them.
—
Scottie Andrew and Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 6 July 2020
As is often the case, Louie was unlucky — and also unskillful.
—Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 12 Mar. 2017
Scottie Andrew and Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 6 July 2020
As is often the case, Louie was unlucky — and also unskillful.
—Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 12 Mar. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unskillful
Adjective
-
All of the charges were ultimately discharged after she was found incompetent for court proceedings by a doctor.—
David Clarey,
jsonline.com,
14 Oct. 2025
-
Look only to the Bengals, Panthers, Browns and Jets, Sunday’s opponent, for examples of what can go wrong with owners with short pockets, short tempers and/or outsized influence from the unqualified and incompetent.—
Troy Renck,
Denver Post,
11 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Injuries have swept through the league, and inexperienced or ill-fitting players have been forced into service as special-teams blockers.—
J.J. Bailey,
New York Times,
12 Oct. 2025
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Scaloni, whose team finished in first place in South American World Cup qualifying, was using Friday’s match, and the Tuesday match against Puerto Rico at Chase Stadium, to integrate some of the younger and inexperienced players on the roster.—
Michelle Kaufman,
Miami Herald,
11 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
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
-
Arrived unfit and has recently been injured.—
Tim Spiers,
New York Times,
7 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Autumn has draped itself across the northern hemisphere, heralding the onset of longer, darker nights that serve as the perfect backdrop for amateur astronomers looking to explore the wonders of the night sky.—
Anthony Wood,
Space.com,
14 Oct. 2025
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The up-and-comer also gained some notoriety around the same time, having won amateur night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem several times.—
Stephanie Sengwe,
PEOPLE,
14 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
-
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
-
The network also reported female health workers saying that their newer colleagues were likely to be unskilled women who came from Taliban-loyal families.—
NPR,
NPR,
14 Oct. 2025
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Unfortunately, the rest of the roster is too big and unskilled, a downstream consequence of buying into the fiction that Davis is a power forward.—
John Hollinger,
New York Times,
10 Oct. 2025
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
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Domestic treble winners, WSL champions six years running, yet ineffably incapable of finding triumph in Europe.—
Megan Feringa,
New York Times,
7 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unskillful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unskillful. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.
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