in·ept

(ĭn-ĕpt′)

adj.

1. Lacking or showing a lack of skill or competence; bungling or clumsy: an inept actor; an inept performance.

2. Showing a lack of judgment, sense, or reason; inappropriate or foolish: an inept remark.

[Latin ineptus : in-, not; see in-¹ + aptus, suitable; see apt.]

in·ept′ly adv.

in·ept′ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	ineptness - unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training awkwardness, clumsiness, ineptitude, maladroitness, slowness unskillfulness - a lack of cognitive skill rustiness - ineptitude or awkwardness as a consequence of age or lack of practice; "his rustiness showed when he was asked to speed up"
	2.	ineptness - the quality of having the wrong properties for a specific purpose unsuitability, unsuitableness inappropriateness, unworthiness - the quality of being not particularly suitable or befitting; "he retracted nothing that he had said about the inappropriateness of either a corporeal God or a God who is a person"; "his praise released from her loud protestations of her unworthiness" unfitness - the quality of not being suitable; "the judges agreed on his unfitness for the appointment" inconvenience - the quality of not being useful or convenient quality - an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone; "the quality of mercy is not strained"--Shakespeare

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Today has been a day of folly, stupidity, and ineptness. The time is now eleven o'clock in the evening, and I am sitting in my room and thinking.

View in context

If these two noticed Angel's growing social ineptness, he noticed their growing mental limitations.

View in context

"This is all because of what can be termed as government's ineptness and lack of foresight thinking.

Atwoli blames corruption, poor decisions for ailing manufacturing sector

Binay's, the allegations of corruption thrown at him, and Roxas' burden, his supposed incompetence and ineptness.

'Stories, not issues, drive campaigns'

Answering a question, he defended peaceful agitation against ineptness of government(s) as the political and legal right of political parties, and stressed on an effective Election Commission by adhering to articles 62-68; while replying to yet another question, he strongly denied any underground moves by JI, and said that his party wanted to work with governing powers, legitimately and transparently.

All Federation segments should be unanimous regarding issues: Baloch

The department possessed 3-months of revenues in account, in the entire history of the department; while being run by the very MD (Asad) charged with ineptness.

PM Nawaz grossly mislead over NESPAK briefings

But it would take epic ineptness not to beat Bolton today and that's why bookies Sky Bet will be trembling.

RESULT!: Bookies fear a triple whammy

One reason for the phenomenon may be that mathematical ineptness is socially acceptable in many circles.

Math problem; Move to improve teaching could be a powerful plus

The film is particularly good in showing the ineptness of the American intelligence services who knew an attack was coming but failed to warn their fleet and the moral dilemmas in the Japanese political hierarchy over the attack.

DVD view: TORA! TORA! TORA!

Like Smith, he is troubled by the president's ineptness, but his major criticism is that Carter failed to see or use human rights as a weapon against communism.

Did Carter fail on human rights?

LAHORE -- Pakistan Peoples Party leader Qamar Zaman Kaira says the party has the capability to topple the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government but won't do so and let it complete the term so that its ineptness stands exposed before the masses.

PPP can topple PTI govt but won't do so, says Kaira