omnicompetent en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˌɒmniˈkɒmpɪtənt/
Etymology
From omni- + competent.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Competent in every area.
To Lippmann, democratic theory presented an idealized vision of omnicompetent citizens capable of making informed decisions leading to wise laws and good government, a condition that plainly did not obtain.
1998 June, Glenn W., Jr. Richardson, “Building a Better Ad Watch: Talking Patterns to the American Voter”, in The International Journal of Press/Politics, volume 3, number 3, →DOI, pages 76–95:All these claims [about impending societal effects of AI development] are wildly speculative. It’s not certain that today’s AI labs have functioning business models, much less the wherewithal to develop omnicompetent robots. Yet of all the nightmare scenarios spun by fatalistic futurists, AGI-induced neofeudalism strikes me as among the most plausible. […] None of this means that AGI is two years away, as some of the industry’s boosters (and Cassandras) have been prophesying. But it does offer some cause for thinking that economically omnicompetent machines are possible.
2025 November 4, Eric Levitz, “The most likely AI apocalypse: How artificial intelligence could be leading most humans into an inescapable trap”, in Vox:Granted, management is not omnicompetent; that is why it must rely on the expertise of the workers. But neither are the workers omnicompetent.
1990, Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 166:
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(especially, not-comparable) Competent in every area. ▸ Having formal jurisdiction in all matters.
Soon after the Bolshevik Revolution, the image of the future omnicompetent, endlessly mobile man was restated by Bukharin and Preobrazhensky in their political primer, The ABC of Communism.
1962 April, Elliot R. Goodman, “Reflections on the New Soviet Party Program”, in Russian Review, volume 21, number 2, →ISSN, →JSTOR, pages 109–120:Are the judgments of public opinion inevitably "right" or even relatively wise, or are they merely the resultants of the delusions, prejudices, and inadequacies of the supposedly omnicompetent citizen exercising his "right divine of the ignorant to govern wrong"?
1942 March, Leon Weaver, “How Valid is Public Opinion?”, in Social Forces, volume 20, number 3, →ISSN, →JSTOR, pages 341–344:The omnicompetent state admittedly works badly at times, but it does work, which is more than the impotent "commune" would be likely to do.
1922, Niles Carpenter, Guild Socialism: An Historical and Critical Analysis, New York; London: D. Appleton and Co., →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 273:Near-synonyms: plenipotent, plenipotentiary
Coordinates
all-knowing · omniscient · omnipotent · plenipotentiary · omnipotent · all-powerful · omniscient · plenipotentiary · all-knowing · plenipotent · all-powerful · plenipotent
Relateds
omnicompetence · omnicompetency