different between ignorance vs incompetence

English

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Alternative forms

• ignoraunce

Etymology

From Old French ignorance. Surface analysis: ignore +? -ance

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?g'n?r?ns, IPA^(key): /???n???ns/

Noun

ignorance (countable and uncountable, plural ignorances)

1. The condition of being uninformed or uneducated. Lack of knowledge or information.

   Synonyms: blindness, cluelessness, knowledgelessness, unawareness, unknowingness, unknowledge

2. (religion, in the plural) Sins committed through ignorance.

Derived terms

• ignorance is bliss
• ignorant
• willful ignorance

Translations

Usage notes

• In Roman Catholic theology, vincible or wilful ignorance is such as one might be fairly expected to overcome, hence it can never be an excuse for sin, whether of omission or of commission; while invincible ignorance, which a person cannot help or abate, altogether excuses from guilt.

Anagrams

• ear coning, enorganic, garcinone

French

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin ignorantia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.??.???s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

ignorance f (plural ignorances)

1. ignorance

Further reading

• “ignorance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• rencognai

Old French

Etymology

Latin ign?rantia.

Noun

ignorance f (oblique plural ignorances, nominative singular ignorance, nominative plural ignorances)

1. ignorance (lacking of knowledge; lack of understanding)
2. something that one is ignorant of

Descendants

• English: ignorance
• French: ignorance

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (ignorance, supplement)

English

Etymology

From French incompétence.

Noun

incompetence (usually uncountable, plural incompetences)

1. Inability to perform; lack of competence; ineptitude.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:

     ... at the head of a crew, too, chiefly made up of mongrel renegades, and castaways, and cannibals--morally enfeebled also, by the incompetence of mere unaided virtue or right-mindedness in Starbuck

   • 1949, George Orwell, 1984:

     Winston did not know why Withers had been disgraced. Perhaps it was for corruption or incompetence. Perhaps Big Brother was merely getting rid of a too-popular subordinate.

   • 1974, Ursula Leguin, The Dispossessed:

     The factory where she worked was a poisonous mass of incompetence, favoritism, and sabotage.

Related terms

• incompetent
• competency
• incompetency

Translations