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competence

UK/ˈkɒm.pə.təns/US/ˈkɑm.pə.təns/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,745 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: competences

Competence is being good enough at something to do it properly. Not brilliance — reliability.

The word sets a floor rather than a ceiling, which is why it can sound faintly like faint praise, though in most jobs it is exactly what matters. Professions define it formally, and a competence framework lists what somebody must be able to do. Law uses it for capacity, since a witness must be competent to give evidence. Its opposite, incompetence, is one of the sharpest words in office English.

Mrmw · Public domain

Definitions of competence

  1. 1nouncompetenceThe ability to do something well enough.C1

    “Nobody doubted his technical competence.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    competentia

  2. Middle French

    compétence

  3. English, today

    competence

Borrowed from Middle French compétence, from Latin competentia. a doublet of competency.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Word Building

First appears in chapter 15 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

competence in the wild

  • In addition to the basic training required for a trade, occupation or profession, training may continue beyond initial competence to maintain, upgrade and update skills throughout working life.

    Training

  • Many skills require practice to remain at a high level of competence.

    Four stages of competence

  • Eventually, the skill can be utilized without it being consciously thought through: the individual is said to have then acquired unconscious competence.

    Four stages of competence

  • The distinction is widely adopted in formal linguistics, where competence and performance are typically studied independently.

    Linguistic competence

  • Defendants who do not possess sufficient "competence" are usually excluded from criminal prosecution, while witnesses found not to possess requisite competence cannot testify.

    Competence (law)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • incompetence