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
-
The Trump administration has pulled the plug on a program that provides legal help to immigrants who are determined mentally incompetent, according to a lawsuit filed by immigration legal groups.—
Suzanne Gamboa,
NBC news,
6 May 2025
-
City Council, do the right thing for once and put it on the ballot to overturn the requirement of requiring our incompetent city management to do this.—
U T Readers,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
26 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Declared mentally unfit to stand trial, he was committed to the Mendota Mental Health Institute.—
Jenna deJong,
MSNBC Newsweek,
5 May 2025
-
That figure comprises people found psychiatrically unfit for trial but are stuck on Rikers awaiting a bed in a state psychiatric facility.—
Graham Rayman,
New York Daily News,
5 May 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
-
Related Stories Whoever says this is unskilled work is either ignorant or lying.—
Jasmin Malik Chua,
Sourcing Journal,
4 Apr. 2025
-
Photo: Focus Features/Everett Collection A Coen brothers riff on the spy genre, Burn After Reading is filled with self-mythologizing drunks, unskilled opportunists, and borderline morons.—
Keith Phipps,
Vulture,
19 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Bears are betting the president is incapable of doing either.—
Jon Markman,
Forbes.com,
19 May 2025
-
Dakota Johnson, queen of all nepo babies, is incapable of being boring.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
18 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unskillful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unskillful. Accessed 22 May. 2025.
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