competence

competence

See also: compétence

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French compétence, from Late Latin competentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmpətəns/

Noun

competence (countable and uncountable, plural competences)

1. (uncountable) The quality or state of being competent, i.e. able or suitable for a general role.
   • 2005, Lies Sercu and Ewa Bandura, Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Competence: An International Investigation:

     Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence.

2. (countable) The quality or state of being able or suitable for a particular task; the quality or state of being competent for a particular task.
3. (linguistics) The system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language, as opposed to its actual use in concrete situations (performance), cf. w:linguistic competence.
4. (dated) A sustainable income.
   • Alexander Pope

     Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, / Lie in three words — health, peace, and competence.

   • 1811, Jane Austen, chapter 17, in Sense and Sensibility:

     “money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it. Beyond a competence, it can afford no real satisfaction, as far as mere self is concerned.”

5. (countable) In law, the legal authority to deal with a matter.

   That question is out with the competence of this court and must be taken to a higher court.

Synonyms

• ability
• competency
• nous
• savoir-faire
• knack (colloq.)
• aptitude
• See also Thesaurus:skill

Antonyms

• inability
• ineptitude
• incompetence

Related terms

• compete
• competition
• competentness

Translations

the quality or state of being competent for a general role.

Bulgarian: способност (bg) f (sposobnost), умение (bg) n (umenie), вещина (bg) f (veština) Catalan: competència (ca) f Dutch: competentie (nl), bekwaamheid (nl) Finnish: pätevyys (fi), kompetenssi (fi) French: compétence (fr) f German: Kompetenz (de) f, Befähigung (de) f, Zuständigkeit f Hebrew: יכולת‎ (he) f (yekhólet), סמכות‎ (he) f (samkhút)

Italian: competenza (it) f Maori: āheinga Persian: بیاعرضه‎ (ba-orzeh) Portuguese: competência (pt) f Russian: спосо́бность (ru) f (sposóbnostʹ), уме́ние (ru) n (uménije), компете́нтность (ru) f (kompeténtnostʹ) Spanish: competencia (es) f Turkish: yetki (tr), yetkinlik (tr)

the quality or state of being competent for a particular task.

Bulgarian: компетентност (bg) (kompetentnost), правомощие (bg) (pravomoštie), меродавност f (merodàvnost) Catalan: competència (ca) f Dutch: competentie (nl), bevoegdheid (nl) f Finnish: pätevyys (fi), kompetenssi (fi) French: compétence (fr) f German: Kompetenz (de) f, Sachkunde f, Befugnis (de) f, Können (de) n Hebrew: סמכות‎ (he) f (samkhút)

Hungarian: hozzáértés (hu) Persian: باعرضه‎ (fa) (ba-orzeh) Portuguese: competência (pt) f Russian: компете́нтность (ru) f (kompeténtnostʹ), правомо́чие (ru) n (pravomóčije), компете́нция (ru) f (kompeténcija) Spanish: competencia (es) f Swedish: duglighet Turkish: yetki (tr), yetkinlik (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Japanese: 実力 (jitsuryoku)

References

• “competence” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.