inability

/ˌˈɪnəˌbɪlədi/

/ɪnəˈbɪlɪti/

Other forms: inabilities

An inability refers to lacking the capacity to do something. A deaf person has an inability to hear.

If you know that abilities are things people can do — like the ability of a basketball player to dunk the ball — then you might already have figured out that an inability is something a person cannot do. Most people have an inability to dunk a basketball. People who eat too much have an inability to resist food. Often, this word refers to having mental limitations: an inability to think or figure something out. We all have different abilities and inabilities.

Definitions of inability

1. noun

   lack of ability (especially mental ability) to do something
   antonyms:

   ability

   possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done

   types:

   block, mental block

   an inability to remember or think of something you normally can do; often caused by emotional tension

   stupidity

   a poor ability to understand or to profit from experience

   inaptitude

   a lack of aptitude

   incapacity

   lack of intellectual power

   unskillfulness

   a lack of cognitive skill

   analphabetism, illiteracy

   an inability to read

   uncreativeness

   a lack of creativity

   incomprehension

   an inability to understand

   incoordination

   a lack of coordination of movements

   disfluency

   lack of skillfulness in speaking or writing

   writer's block

   an inability to write

   denseness, dumbness, slow-wittedness

   the quality of being mentally slow and limited

   dullness, obtuseness

   the quality of being slow to understand

   backwardness, mental retardation, retardation, slowness, subnormality

   lack of normal development of intellectual capacities

   craziness, folly, foolishness, madness

   the quality of being rash and foolish

   vacuousness

   indicative of or marked by mental vacuity and an absence of ideas

   talentlessness

   a lack of talent

   incapability, incapableness

   lack of potential for development

   awkwardness, clumsiness, ineptitude, ineptness, maladroitness, slowness

   unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training

   inefficiency

   unskillfulness resulting from a lack of efficiency

   amateurishness

   something that demonstrates a lack of professional competency

   fruitlessness

   a lack of creative imagination

   unoriginality

   uncreativeness due to a lack of originality

   type of:

   cognition, knowledge, noesis

   the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning
2. noun

   lacking the power to perform
   synonyms: unfitness

   antonyms:

   ability

   the quality of being able to perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment

   types:

   unadaptability

   the inability to change or be changed to fit changed circumstances

   insensitiveness, insensitivity

   the inability to respond to affective changes in your interpersonal environment

   incompetence, incompetency

   lack of physical or intellectual ability or qualifications

   incapability, incapableness

   the quality of not being capable -- physically or intellectually or legally

   insufficiency

   (pathology) inability of a bodily part or organ to function normally

   inflexibility, rigidity, rigidness

   the quality of being rigid and rigorously severe

   crassitude, crassness

   the quality of being crass--devoid of refinement

   tin ear

   insensitivity to the appropriateness or subtlety of language

   callosity, callousness, hardness, insensibility, unfeelingness

   the trait of being devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness

   unperceptiveness

   the lack of insight and sympathetic understanding

   unkindness

   lack of sympathy

   incapacity

   lack of physical or natural qualifications

   cardiac insufficiency, coronary insufficiency

   inadequate blood flow to the heart muscles; can cause angina pectoris

   type of:

   quality

   an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone