Lack of physical or intellectual ability or qualifications.

synonym: incompetency.

Roget 640: insufficiency; inadequacy, inadequateness; incompetence etc. (impotence) 158; deficiency etc. (incompleteness) 53; imperfection etc. 651; shortcoming etc. 304; paucity; stint; scantiness etc. (smallness) 32; none to spare, bare subsistence.    scarcity, dearth; want, need, lack, poverty, exigency; inanition, starvation, famine, drought.    dole, mite, pittance; short allowance, short commons; half rations; banyan day.    emptiness, poorness etc. adj.; depletion, vacancy, flaccidity; ebb tide; low water; a beggarly account of empty boxes" [Romeo and Juliet]; indigence etc. 804; insolvency etc. (nonpayment) 808.    ... show more

Roget 699: unskillfulness etc. adj.; want of skill etc. 698; incompetence, incompentency^†; inability, infelicity, indexterity^†, inexperience; disqualification, unproficiency^†; quackery.    folly, stupidity etc. 499; indiscretion etc. (rashness) 863; thoughtlessness etc. (inattention) 458 (neglect) 460; sabotage.    mismanagement, misconduct; impolicy^†; maladministration; misrule, misgovernment, misapplication, misdirection, misfeasance; petticoat government.    absence of rule, rule of thumb; bungling etc. v.; failure etc. 732; screw loose: too many cooks.    blunder etc. (mistake) 495; etourderie gaucherie [Fr.], act of folly, balourdise^†; botch, botchery^†; bad job, sad work.    sprat sent out to catch a whale, much ado about nothing, wild-goose chase.    bungler etc. 701; fool etc. 501.    ... show more

Roget 499: want of intelligence etc. 498, want of intellect etc. 450; shadowness^†, silliness, foolishness etc. adj.; imbecility, incapacity, vacancy of mind, poverty of intellect, weakness of intellect, clouded perception, poor head, apartments to let; stupidity, stolidity; hebetude^†, dull understanding, meanest capacity, shortsightedness; incompetence etc. (unskillfulness) 699.    one's weak side, not one's strong point; bias etc. 481; infatuation etc. (insanity) 503.    simplicity, puerility, babyhood; dotage, anility^†, second childishness, fatuity; idiocy, idiotism^†; driveling.    folly, frivolity, irrationality, trifling, ineptitude, nugacity^†, inconsistency, lip wisdom, conceit; sophistry etc. 477; giddiness etc. (inattention) 458; eccentricity etc. 503; extravagance etc. (absurdity) 497; rashness etc. 863.    act of folly etc. 699.    ... show more

Roget 158: impotence; inability, disability; disablement, impuissance, imbecility; incapacity, incapability; inaptitude, ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity^†; indocility^†; invalidity, disqualification; inefficiency, wastefulness.    telum imbelle [Lat.], brutum fulmen [Lat.], blank, blank cartridge, flash in the pan, vox et proeterea nihil [Lat.], dead letter, bit of waste paper, dummy; paper tiger; Quaker gun.    inefficacy etc. (inutility) 645^†; failure etc. 732.    helplessness etc. adj.; prostration, paralysis, palsy, apoplexy, syncope, sideration^†, deliquium [Lat.], collapse, exhaustion, softening of the brain, inanition; emasculation, orchiotomy [Med.], orchotomy [Med.].    cripple, old woman, muff, powder puff, creampuff, pussycat, wimp, mollycoddle; eunuch.    ... show more

Dutch: ondeskundigheid

Inability of a part or organ to function properly.