Dictionary

inept en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ɪˈnɛpt/ (Canada, UK, US)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ɪˈnept/ (Australia)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French inepte, from Latin ineptus, from in- + aptus (whence English apt).

Meanings

1. Not able to do something; not proficient; displaying incompetence.
   • Stewing over recent legal defeats, he [Donald Trump] spent Sunday night posting a series of rambling rants assailing the “completely inept and embarrassing” Supreme Court, the “Deranged” former special counsel, […] and “a Wacky, Nasty, Crooked, and totally Out of Control Judge” who ruled against him. 2026 March 16, Peter Baker, “In Choosing ‘Epic Fury,’ Trump Names a War and Defines His Presidency”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
   • As a waiter, he was inept, so they put him in the kitchen.
2. Unfit; unsuitable.
   • The bungled phrase, the slipshod paragraph, the inept metaphor, the irrelevant excursion, the disproportionate development, the feeble conclusion, are indeed all failures of meaning, and the more poetically ambitious the verbal structure in which they occur, the deeper and more substantive the failure may be. 1954, W. K. Wimsatt, The Verbal Icon, University Press of Kentucky, page xiii:

Forms

Antonyms

adept · skillful · apt

Deriveds

ineptitude · ineptly · ept · ineptness

Translations (76)

cs nejapný (unfit, unsuitable) · mk неприкладен (unfit, unsuitable) · ru него́дный (unfit, unsuitable) · ja 不適当な (unfit, unsuitable) · fr inepte (not able to do something) · ja 不向きな (not able to do something) · yo ope (not able to do something) · no uskikket (not able to do something) · ru неуме́лый (not able to do something) · pt incapaz (not able to do something) · bg неумел (not able to do something) · gd baoth (not able to do something) · pdt onjeschekjt (not able to do something) · pl neptek (not able to do something) · tr yeteneksiz (not able to do something) · fi taitamaton (not able to do something) · hi कुकृय (not able to do something) · et ebapädev (unfit, unsuitable) · et asjatundmatu (not able to do something) · et soss-sepp (not able to do something) · fi osaamaton (not able to do something) · cs nešikovný (not able to do something) · yue 無能嘅 /无能嘅 (not able to do something) · yue 唔適當嘅 /唔适当嘅 (unfit, unsuitable) · bg неподходящ (unfit, unsuitable) · cs neschopný (not able to do something) · pt incompetente (not able to do something) · ja 苦手な (not able to do something) · mi rapa (not able to do something) · et sobimatu (unfit, unsuitable) · et ebapädev (not able to do something) · pt inapto (not able to do something) · ro incapabil (not able to do something) · hu célszerűtlen (unfit, unsuitable) · it inetto (not able to do something) · ru неспосо́бный (not able to do something) · nl onbekwaam (not able to do something) · mk неспособен (not able to do something) · pl niezaradny (not able to do something) · no talentløs (not able to do something) · de ungeeignet (unfit, unsuitable) · el ανίκανος (not able to do something) · el άχρηστος (not able to do something) · io nekapabla (not able to do something) · mi pakihawa (not able to do something) · es inepto (not able to do something) · bg неуместен (unfit, unsuitable) · hy անձեռնհաս (not able to do something) · ca inepte (not able to do something) · et saamatu (not able to do something) · fi avuton (not able to do something) · yue 笨拙嘅 (not able to do something) · de unfähig (not able to do something) · mi koretake (not able to do something) · ja 弱い (not able to do something) · de untauglich (unfit, unsuitable) · cmn 不適當的 /不适当的 (unfit, unsuitable) · ja 不向きな (unfit, unsuitable) · tr beceriksiz (not able to do something) · mk несоодветен (unfit, unsuitable) · mk некадарен (not able to do something) · cs neobratný (not able to do something) · ro incompetent (not able to do something) · no udugelig (not able to do something) · mi hakorea (not able to do something) · bg некадърен (not able to do something) · ja 不適な (unfit, unsuitable) · cs nevhodný (unfit, unsuitable) · cmn 無能的 /无能的 (not able to do something) · hu alkalmatlan (not able to do something) · pl nieudolny (not able to do something) · nl ongeschikt (not able to do something) · cmn 笨拙的 (not able to do something) · uk невмі́лий (not able to do something) · es incapaz (not able to do something) · fi kyvytön (not able to do something)