ineptitude

English

Etymology

From Latin ineptitūdō. By surface analysis, inept +‎ -itude.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnɛp.tɪ.tjud/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnɛp.tɪ.t(j)ud/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnep.tə.t͡ʃʉd/

Noun

ineptitude (countable and uncountable, plural ineptitudes)

1. The quality of being inept.
   • 2013 August 14, Simon Jenkins, The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The curse has been Spanish ineptitude feeding Gibraltarian intransigence. Border hold-ups are counterproductive to winning hearts and minds, as were blundering Argentinian landings on the outer Falklands.

2. An instance of being inept.
   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     He droned on with platitudes and ineptitudes while Malone whispered to Enid that if Alasha was a fair specimen of the population it was just as well that his native land was safely engulfed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Synonyms

• ineptness
• schmuckiness

Translations

the quality of being inept

• Bulgarian: абсу́рдност (bg) f (absúrdnost), неуместност (bg) f (neumestnost)
• Catalan: ineptitud f
• Dutch: dwaasheid (nl)
• Finnish: avuttomuus (fi), taitamattomuus (fi), kyvyttömyys (fi)
• French: stupidité (fr)
• German: Unfähigkeit (de) f (inability); Untauglichkeit f (unfitness)
• Greek: ανεπιτηδειότητα (el) f (anepitideiótita)
• Japanese: 無才 (ja) (musai), 不向き (fumuki), 不適 (ja) (futeki), 不適度 (futekido), 不適性 (futekisei)
• Manx: meehraaoilaght f
• Russian: неспособность (ru) f (nesposobnostʹ), негодность (ru) f (negodnostʹ), никудышность (ru) f (nikudyšnostʹ)
• Spanish: ineptitud (es) f