# competence
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from French compétence, from Late Latin competentia.

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈkɒm.pə.təns/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US) IPA: /ˈkɑm.pə.təns/
* (Canada) IPA: /ˈkɒm.pə.təns/, /ˈkɑm.pə.təns/
* (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA: /ˈkɔm.pə.təns/, /ˈkɒm.pə.təns/

### Noun

competence (countable and uncountable, plural competences)
* (uncountable) The quality or state of being competent, i.e. able or suitable for a general role.
** 2005, Lies Sercu, Ewa Bandura, Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Competence: An International Investigation:Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence.
* (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 or skill.
* (linguistics) The system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language, as opposed to its actual use in concrete situations (performance), cf. linguistic competence.
* (dated) A sustainable income.
** 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC: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.”
** 1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 26:A few years ago there lived in a city on the Mississippi a happy family, consisting of a husband, wife, and two children. They were in comfortable circumstances—he able to earn a competence—kind, affable, affectionate, […]
* (countable, law, politics) the legal authority to deal with a matter.
    The bill was denied royal assent because the Scottish Parliament does not have legislative competence on the bill's matter.
** 2016, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, “Division of competences in the European Union”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:K C Wheare's definition of federalism requires that two governments be independent and co-ordinate within their own spheres, generally set out by the division of competences codified in a constitution, which is supreme.
** 2003, Rodrigo Uprimny, “The constitutional court and control of presidential extraordinary powers in Colombia”, in Democratization‎, archived from the original on 9 May 2021:Also, the Constitutional Court has tried to reduce impunity in cases of human rights abuses by narrowly interpreting the legal competence of military justice to investigate military and police officers.
* (geology) The degree to which a rock is resistant to deformation or flow.

#### Synonyms

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

#### Antonyms

* inability
* ineptitude
* incompetence

#### Derived terms

* communicative competence
* competence porn
* core competence
* dyscompetence
* emotional competence
* Gillick competence
* hypercompetence
* immunocompetence
* multicompetence
* neurocompetence
* noncompetence
* omnicompetence
* osmocompetence
* retrocompetence
* rhizocompetence
* strategic competence
* undercompetence

#### Related terms

* compete
* competition
* competentness

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### References

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