competent

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The GoodThe Toyota Camry can best be described as a competent, dependable family car that offers a smooth ride and a comfortable interior, as well as good ...

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Properly or sufficiently qualified; capable: a competent typist.
  2. adjective Adequate for the purpose: a competent performance.
  3. adjective Law Legally qualified or fit to perform an act.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Eventually we'll just come to expect our presidents to be competent, and then we won't shower Barry with so much praise about how refreshing he is. —  Original Signal - Transmitting Digg
  • The GoodThe Toyota Camry can best be described as a competent, dependable family car that offers a smooth ride and a comfortable interior, as well as good ... —  The Car Connection
  • Ironically, the no original research, no original synthesis worked against both sides of CIA-as-Dark-Force and CIA-as-Clowns (with a competent area in the middle) -- it wasn't possible to make an unsourced hypothesis, but it was possible to state the two (or more) sides well enough that a reasonable reader could make personal decisions. —  Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en]
  • The tech we chatted with was quite competent, and she fixed the problem, but it soon became clear that English was probably not her first language. —  The Greenbelt
  • By the numbers Udrih was suddenly looking like a competent, serviceable point guard for the future. —  Empty the Bench
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

able ·  skilled ·  talented ·  efficient ·  capable ·  reliable ·  conscientious ·  respectable ·  trustworthy ·  shrewd
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, adequate, from Old French, from Latin competēns, competent-, present participle of competere, to be suitable; see compete.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = D. Danish kompetent = G. Swedish competent, from Old French competent, French compétent = Provencal competent = Spanish Portuguese Italian competente, from Latin competen (t-)s, in Late Latin as adjective, corresponding to, suitable, competent, properly present participle of competere (later F. compéter, etc.), be sufficient, also strive after, etc.: see compete.
 

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/ˈkɑmpətɛnt/
by American Heritage
by David Bohan

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