How to Use incompetent in a Sentence

incompetent

adjective
Definition of incompetentnext
Synonyms for incompetentnext
  • He is too incompetent to be trusted with such an important responsibility.
  • Two convictions were thrown out: one because the sailor was found to be mentally incompetent, and the other due to lack of evidence.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 July 2024
  • He was also ruled incompetent at a bench trial in 2019, but was found competent to stand trial last year.
    — City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Mar. 2022
  • Russia’s huge but incompetent army has been stymied in its attempts to seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other cities.
    — Doyle McManuswashington Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2022
  • In June 2019, he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
    — Ryan W. Miller, USA TODAY, 16 Mar. 2022
  • According to the lawsuit, Arriola was found incompetent to stand trial.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Mar. 2022
  • Garcia Zarate remained in custody and, after being found mentally incompetent to stand trial, was sent to a federal prison for treatment.
    — Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Mar. 2022
  • But the Jets have already pushed their pieces to the middle and would look incompetent if this deal doesn’t get done.
    — Michael Arinze, Chicago Tribune, 21 Mar. 2023
  • Trump tried to turn the focus less on Biden’s age than the fact that the president, in his words, was incompetent.
    — Ted Johnson, Deadline, 28 June 2024
  • The more one had, the more likely one would be declared incompetent.
    — Shannon Toll, The Conversation, 23 Oct. 2023
  • Even Democrats have agreed that – that he's been completely incompetent and not on the ball there, so to say.
    — Nbc Universal, NBC News, 21 Jan. 2024
  • And in the 2019 bank robbery case, she was found incompetent to stand trial.
    — David K. Li, NBC News, 26 July 2022
  • Pause for a walk, some tea, deep breaths Think driver who was yelled at is just incompetent?
    — Lizzy Acker, oregonlive, 7 Mar. 2023
  • She has been deemed incompetent by the nursing home and therefore can’t name me as a contact.
    — Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 28 July 2023
  • The suspect in the Boulder shooting was deemed incompetent to stand trial in March.
    — Anna Kaplan, Forbes, 14 May 2022
  • Two — ages 14 and 10 — were found incompetent to stand trial.
    — jsonline.com, 20 Apr. 2022
  • Hundreds of inmates in the Bexar County jail have been deemed incompetent to stand trial, but that could change soon.
    — Scott Huddleston, San Antonio Express-News, 3 Apr. 2023
  • For months, Prigozhin had berated them as incompetent, corrupt and out-of-touch.
    — Mary Ilyushina, Anchorage Daily News, 26 June 2023
  • But don’t come at me for being incompetent and clueless as a parent.
    — Saul Austerlitz, The Atlantic, 5 Mar. 2024
  • People who have been deemed incompetent sit in county jails until a spot opens.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 July 2023
  • August 2014 Judge Michael Bohren finds Geyser incompetent and suspends the prosecution of the charges against her.
    — Jim Riccioli, USA TODAY, 12 Apr. 2024
  • The film’s younger guys dress in fake fur and act like Neanderthals, while the middle-aged men who have jobs are portrayed as incompetent nincompoops.
    — Susan Pinker, WSJ, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Over the last 20 years, the number of people classified as incompetent to stand trial has increased by 38%.
    — Dallas News, 25 Jan. 2023
  • Over the course of 10 years, she was alternately found competent and then incompetent to stand trial in court.
    — Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2024
  • Julie Su is so incompetent that Biden has decided to promote her.
    — John Fund, National Review, 23 Apr. 2023
  • These gruff, protective TV dads are a stark contrast to one of the most pervasive archetypes of the medium: the lovably incompetent dads most often seen in sitcoms.
    — Elvia Limón, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2023
  • Arizona’s offense averaged just 13 points in those three games, an incompetent showing that has doomed the Cardinals to a middle-of-the-pack 3-4 record.
    — Greg Moore, The Arizona Republic, 30 Oct. 2022
  • And a defeat that would dwarf the embarrassment and the damage done by Biden’s incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan.
    — Ivana Kottasová, CNN, 20 July 2024
  • The elder Kleist not only welcomed the demise of the Weimar Republic, but faulted the Nazis for being too incompetent a band of hooligans to dismantle it.
    — Thomas Meaney, Harper's Magazine, 26 Apr. 2024
  • And using the same label for a murderous, fascist tyrant (like Hitler) and an incompetent, sloppy propagandist (like Trump) makes no sense.
    — Kendra Stanton Lee, Newsweek, 9 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'incompetent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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