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 interview was one of Gille's first public appearances since a judge ruled him incompetent to stand trial in August.—
Natalie Davies,
Freep.com,
30 Oct. 2025
-
The thing that makes Slow Horses work so well — in addition to the action and pacing and farting — is that everyone on this show is incompetent in their own special little way.—
Brian Grubb,
Vulture,
29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Senior defensive tackle Braxton Fely’s radar is already up at the chance of facing another inexperienced QB.—
Shaun Goodwin,
Idaho Statesman,
30 Oct. 2025
-
In doing so, Sonny mentors a talented but inexperienced rookie named Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) and brings an unconventional style of racing to the track.—
Tommy McArdle,
PEOPLE,
30 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Miyares referenced a Richmond Times-Dispatch report of a Virginia trooper clocking Jones at 116 miles per hour, framing him as unfit to enforce the law.—
Jesus Mesa,
MSNBC Newsweek,
5 Nov. 2025
-
The Bush and Quayle team won the 1988 election, but the impression of Quayle as unfit for the job remained a drag on Bush’s reputation.—
Time,
Time,
3 Nov. 2025
Adjective
-
Over the past four decades, amateur lawmakers worked across party lines far less often than incumbent lawmakers, both when developing their own legislation and when lending support to other legislators’ proposals.—
Jeff Harden,
The Conversation,
3 Nov. 2025
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Frankie Piliere, who has been the team’s director of amateur scouting the past two years, now holds the title of vice president of amateur forecasting and player evaluation initiatives.—
Jordan McPherson,
Miami Herald,
3 Nov. 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
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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
-
The girl seems incapable of forming a malicious thought, much less serving as the incarnation of evil, and that’s what makes the choice so apt for a film in which a simple, seemingly innocent desire — to live as an ordinary man — threatens to draw Jesus from his destiny.—
Keith Phipps,
Vulture,
31 Oct. 2025
-
Gilligan is probably incapable of saccharine.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
27 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unskillful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unskillful. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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