incompatibility

/ɪnˌkɑmpətɪˈbɪlɪti/

Other forms: incompatibilities

She wants kids, he doesn't? She's married to him, he's married to his work? That's incompatibility right there: the inability of two sides to exist in a harmonious relationship with each other because of their different outlooks and beliefs.

It's not just relationships between people that are characterized by incompatibility, though that's the most common use of the term. Different objects and ideas can be, too. Being tone deaf is incompatible with being a good singer, for example, and if anyone's ever tried to run a Mac program on a PC they know all about the incompatibility of different computer systems.

Definitions of incompatibility

1. noun

   the quality of being unable to exist or work in congenial combination
   antonyms:

   compatibility

   capability of existing or performing in harmonious or congenial combination

   types:

   conflict

   an incompatibility of dates or events

   incongruity, incongruousness

   the quality of disagreeing; being unsuitable and inappropriate

   irony

   incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs

   type of:

   characteristic, discriminant

   a distinguishing quality
2. noun

   the relation between propositions that cannot both be true at the same time
   synonyms: inconsistency, mutual exclusiveness, repugnance

   type of:

   contradictoriness

   the relation that exists when opposites cannot coexist
3. noun

   (immunology) the degree to which the body's immune system will try to reject foreign material (as transfused blood or transplanted tissue)
   types:

   histoincompatibility

   incompatibility in which one person's tissue cannot be transplanted to another person

   Rh incompatibility

   incompatibility of Rh blood types; a transfusion of Rh-positive blood given to a Rh-negative person (or vice versa) can result in hemolysis and anemia

   type of:

   physical condition, physiological condition, physiological state

   the condition or state of the body or bodily functions