Sample sentences for INEPT - verbalworkout.com

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Definition

not skilled

an inept remark

inept handling of the account
they were bumbling, inept savages,
Alice Walker -- The Color Purple

inept = not skilled

Dressing up is inevitably a substitute for good ideas. It is no coincidence that technically inept business types are known as "suits."
Paul Graham
Burnham became an avid player of bridge, though he was known widely for being utterly inept at the game.
Erik Larson -- The Devil in the White City
Few men could have successfully followed Abraham Lincoln as president, but Andrew Johnson proved particularly inept.
Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard -- Killing Lincoln
Not only was he inept where feelings were concerned, he was also a dolt with horses.
Larry McMurtry -- Lonesome Dove
He was trying to teach the "Hava Nagilia" to a rapt but inept circle of admirers.
Dan Simmons -- Hyperion
I see Pollux made it through, so I suppose you aren't completely inept.
Rick Riordan -- The Last Olympian
Cedric watches the party unfold, feeling the room's pounding energy flow through him, while he tries to reconcile himself with crushing ineptness.
Ron Suskind -- A Hope in the Unseen

(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)

To omit a word always, to resort to inept metaphors and obvious periphrases, is perhaps the most emphatic way of stressing it.
Jorge Luis Borges -- The Garden of Forking Paths
When Changó found out, he tracked down his inept accomplice to the foot of a palm tree.
Christina Garcia -- Dreaming in Cuban
Adams charged McHenry with inept management, of failing to clothe the troops adequately.
David McCullough -- John Adams
Now, in a desperate attempt to cover their own ineptitude, they've arrested my brother and they're holding my father.
J.D. Robb -- Glory in Death

(editor's note: The suffix "-itude" converts an adjective to a noun.)

Moody journeyed to the passport office, spending the entire day there, frustrated by long lines and bureaucratic ineptitude.
Betty Mahmoody -- Not Without My Daughter

(editor's note: The suffix "-itude" converts an adjective to a noun.)

They targeted COP Falcon, but ineptly.
Chris Kyle -- American Sniper
I doubted if awkward, self-conscious, and inept added up todesirable in anyone's book.
Stephenie Meyer -- Eclipse
Anger at her own ineptitude.
Robert Cormier -- After the First Death

(editor's note: The suffix "-itude" converts an adjective to a noun.)

Shocking, really, that a romance novelist could be so inept at the language of the heart.
Kate DiCamillo -- Flora & Ulysses
Washington had proven indecisive and inept.
David G. McCullough -- 1776

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