competence Antonyms
Opposite of competence
• noun (Context 1)
The ability to do something successfully or efficiently; the possession of required skill, knowledge, qualification, or capacity.
"The surgeon demonstrated exceptional technical incompetence throughout the complex procedure."
• noun (Context 2)
The legal authority of a court or other official body to deal with a particular matter, or the mental capacity of a person to participate in legal proceedings.
"The defense attorney requested a psychiatric evaluation to determine the defendant's incompetence to stand trial."
• noun (Context 3)
A speaker's unconscious, internalized knowledge of the grammatical rules of a language, contrasted with actual linguistic performance.
"In generative linguistics, a distinction is drawn between a native speaker's underlying grammatical performance and their everyday speech."
Similar words to competence
Words similar to competence shift depending on context. Common synonyms include: