12 uses
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Definition
capable (able to do something in a generally satisfactory manner) — sometimes specifically to have legal capability
- He prefers to let a competent mechanic take care of these things so that they are done right.Part 1 (9% in)
- Any instructor who does not should keep this fact carefully concealed, for this would certainly constitute proof of incompetence.Part 3 (19% in)
- However, that little parenthetic statement about inability to define Quality as proof of incompetence did raise eyebrows within the department.Part 3 (20% in)
- He could hold off the attack for a while with fancy dialectical footwork and insults about competence and incompetence, but sooner or later he had to come up with something more substantial than that.Part 3 (20% in)
- He could hold off the attack for a while with fancy dialectical footwork and insults about competence and incompetence, but sooner or later he had to come up with something more substantial than that.Part 3 (20% in)
- He had already done this with his statement that lack of knowledge of what Quality is constitutes incompetence.Part 3 (31% in)
- It's an old rule of logic that the competence of a speaker has no relevance to the truth of what he says, and so talk of incompetence was pure sand.Part 3 (31% in)
- It's an old rule of logic that the competence of a speaker has no relevance to the truth of what he says, and so talk of incompetence was pure sand.Part 3 (31% in)
- Socrates, that ancient enemy of rhetorical argument, would have sent Phaedrus flying for this one, saying, "Yes, I accept your premise that I'm incompetent on the matter of Quality.Part 3 (31% in)
- Now please show an incompetent old man what Quality is.Part 3 (31% in)
- Phaedrus would have been allowed to stew around for a few minutes, and then been flattened with questions that proved he didn't know what Quality was either and was, by his own standards, incompetent.Part 3 (31% in)
- You're incompetent.Part 3 (65% in)
There are no more uses of "competent" in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Typical Usage
(best examples)