Incompetence
WordNet
noun
(1) Lack of physical or intellectual ability or qualifications
(2) Inability of a part or organ to function properly
WiktionaryText
Noun
- Inability to perform; lack of competence; ineptitude.
Quotations
- 1851: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
- ... at the head of a crew, too, chiefly made up of mongrel renegades, and castaways, and cannibals--morally enfeebled also, by the incompetence of mere unaided virtue or right-mindedness in Starbuck
- 1949: George Orwell, 1984
- Winston did not know why Withers had been disgraced. Perhaps it was for corruption or incompetence. Perhaps Big Brother was merely getting rid of a too-popular subordinate.
- 1974: Ursula Leguin, The Dispossessed
- The factory where she worked was a poisonous mass of incompetence, favoritism, and sabotage.