competent
adjective
Simple meaning
Having sufficient skill, knowledge, ability, or qualifications.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahmpuhtintSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɑmpətɪnt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Having sufficient skill, knowledge, ability, or qualifications.
law
Having jurisdiction or authority over a particular issue or question.
Adequate for the purpose.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Having sufficient skill, knowledge, ability, or qualifications.
Used this way, competent is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- able , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use competent
- “He is a competent worker who always finishes tasks on time.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Someone who is not competent to take effective action.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Antonyms
Sense: having sufficient skill or knowledge or ability
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.