All 24 Uses

competent
in
The Fountainhead
(Auto-generated)

A few words to say informally in a little after-dinner speech—you know, nothing blatant, no vulgar sales talk—only a few well-chosen thoughts on the responsibility of realtors to society, on the importance of selecting architects who are competent, respected and well established.†
Chpt 1.3

competent = sufficiently capable
His view of the world was simple: there were the able and there were the incompetent; he was not concerned with the latter.†
Chpt 1.7

incompetent = not sufficiently capable

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetent means not and reverses the meaning of competent. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
She had a capacity for action, a competence that clashed incongruously with her appearance.†
Chpt 1.12 *

competence = ability
It stands now, abandoned, as an eloquent witness to professional incompetence.†
Chpt 1.13

incompetence = inability to do things sufficiently

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetence means not and reverses the meaning of competence. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
You don't even have the wits to know that you're a flop, an incompetent, a beggar, a failure, a failure, a failure!†
Chpt 1.15

incompetent = not sufficiently capable

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetent means not and reverses the meaning of competent. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
Mallory is an incompetent and knows it and he decided to take it out on you as a symbol of the great and the able.†
Chpt 2.3
You may see that a beautiful woman is inferior to a non-beautiful one, that the literate is inferior to the illiterate, that the rich is inferior to the poor, and the able to the incompetent.†
Chpt 2.8
Most of them were young, brash, competent, shifty-eyed and shook hands limply.†
Chpt 2.9

competent = sufficiently capable
In this office one had to be competent.†
Chpt 2.10
For incompetence?†
Chpt 2.12

incompetence = inability to do things sufficiently

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetence means not and reverses the meaning of competence. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
He was shrewd, competent and unscrupulous in the innocent manner of one unable to grasp the conception of a scruple.†
Chpt 3.1

competent = sufficiently capable
Roark threw his head back, to glance up at the rising steel frame; the light was full on his face, and she saw his look of concentration, not a smile, but an expression that gave her a joyous feeling of competence, of disciplined reason in action.†
Chpt 3.5

competence = ability
It became a rigid set of new rules—the discipline of conscious incompetence, creative poverty made into a system, mediocrity boastfully confessed.†
Chpt 3.6

incompetence = inability to do things sufficiently

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetence means not and reverses the meaning of competence. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
He went on, giving slow, full value to each word: "We called you an incompetent fool, a tyro, a charlatan, a swindler, an egomaniac..."†
Chpt 4.3

incompetent = not sufficiently capable

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetent means not and reverses the meaning of competent. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
No. I hate incompetence.†
Chpt 4.3

incompetence = inability to do things sufficiently

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetence means not and reverses the meaning of competence. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
Everybody can't be as competent as you, my dear.†
Chpt 4.6

competent = sufficiently capable
They're forced to live like that—because they're not incompetent enough.†
Chpt 4.8

incompetent = not sufficiently capable

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetent means not and reverses the meaning of competent. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
But I'll be damned if I can see why a man worth forty must be penalized—and penalized in favor of the one who's less competent.†
Chpt 4.8

competent = sufficiently capable
They were flat, brown oxfords, offensively competent, too well shined on the muddy pavement, contemptuous of rain and of beauty.†
Chpt 4.10
It's simple to seek substitutes for competence—such easy substitutes: love, charm, kindness, charity.†
Chpt 4.11

competence = ability
But there is no substitute for competence.†
Chpt 4.11
The Banner ran an expose on the housing racket: the graft, the incompetence, the structures erected at five times the cost a private builder would have needed, the settlements built and abandoned, the horrible performance accepted, admired, forgiven, protected by the sacred cow of altruism.†
Chpt 4.13

incompetence = inability to do things sufficiently

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetence means not and reverses the meaning of competence. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
Only now she did not write a column on houses, but kept busy wherever a competent hand was needed to fill a gap.†
Chpt 4.15

competent = sufficiently capable
It was not a famous architect publicly confessing incompetence; it was a man reciting a memorized lesson.†
Chpt 4.18

incompetence = inability to do things sufficiently

standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetence means not and reverses the meaning of competence. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.

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Definitions:

(1) (competent)
capable (able to do something in a generally satisfactory manner) -- sometimes specifically to have legal capability
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
In the field of law, competent has the specialized meaning of being legally qualified to do something such as to be mentally fit to make reasonable decisions; or to have jurisdiction or authority to take an action.

In classic literature, a competency can refer to having an income or assets to support living expenses.

competent in The Fountainhead (Auto-generated)

competent
in
The Fountainhead
(Auto-generated)