incompetence
/ɪnˈkɒm.pə.təns/noun
incompetence is spelled I-N-C-O-M-P-E-T-E-N-C-E. The wrong spelling people search most is incompetance: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 16 of all searches for the word. Incompetence is a noun meaning “An inability to perform; a lack of competence; ineptitude”. The plural of incompetence is incompetences.
How many letters and syllables are in incompetence?
| Letters | 12: I-N-C-O-M-P-E-T-E-N-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.7 times per million words; the 16,455th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, incompetance, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell incompetence?
Incompetence is spelled I-N-C-O-M-P-E-T-E-N-C-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 16 of the searches for incompetence in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is incompetence?
Incompetence appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce incompetence?
- /ɪnˈkɒm.pə.təns/
Incompetence has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-incompetence.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of incompetence
- incompetences plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does incompetence mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An inability to perform; a lack of competence; ineptitude.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Incompetence in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense inability to perform:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | incompétence |
| German | Inkompetenz |
| Portuguese | incompetência |
| Spanish | incompetencia |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does incompetence come from?
From French incompétence, equivalent to in- + competence.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).