ineptitude

/ɪˈnɛptɪˌtud/

Other forms: ineptitudes

Ineptitude is a lack of skill, ability, or competence. A doctor would prove his ineptitude at practicing medicine if he mistakenly removed a patient's spleen instead of his kidney.

Ineptitude and incompetence are synonyms to describe people who have absolutely no idea what they're doing. It's definitely not a quality you'd want in a pilot, who might prove his ineptitude by sending a plane full of passengers hurtling to the ground. Ineptitude also isn't a good quality to have in fields like medicine, where even one careless mistake could be life-threatening.

Definitions of ineptitude

1. noun

   unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training
   synonyms: awkwardness, clumsiness, ineptness, maladroitness, slowness

   types:

   rustiness

   ineptitude or awkwardness as a consequence of age or lack of practice

   type of:

   unskillfulness

   a lack of cognitive skill
2. noun

   having no qualities that would render it valuable or useful
   synonyms: worthlessness

   types:

   fecklessness

   worthlessness due to being feeble and ineffectual

   groundlessness, idleness

   the quality of lacking substance or value

   paltriness, sorriness

   worthlessness due to insignificance

   valuelessness

   having none of the properties that endow something with value

   shoddiness, trashiness

   the quality of being cheaply imitative of something better

   darn, hoot, red cent

   something of little value

   emptiness, vanity

   the quality of being valueless or futile

   type of:

   quality

   an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone