1
as in incompetent
lacking qualities (as knowledge, skill, or ability) required to do a job
an unskillful editor can be worse than none at all
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in inexperienced
lacking or showing a lack of expert skill
some painfully unskillful playing by the band's guitarist
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of unskillful
It was intended to be a mockery of the way White people danced, though plantation owners often interpreted slaves' movements as unskillful attempts to be like them.
—
Scottie Andrew and Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 6 July 2020
One of the most fraught issues around suicide clusters is unskillful media coverage, which studies suggest can spur copycats.
—Kate Siber, Outside Online, 4 Sep. 2018
As is often the case, Louie was unlucky — and also unskillful.
—Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 12 Mar. 2017
Scottie Andrew and Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 6 July 2020
One of the most fraught issues around suicide clusters is unskillful media coverage, which studies suggest can spur copycats.
—Kate Siber, Outside Online, 4 Sep. 2018
As is often the case, Louie was unlucky — and also unskillful.
—Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 12 Mar. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unskillful
Adjective
-
Last month, Rodriguez-Singh was found incompetent to stand trial on a capital murder charge in her son’s death, and she will be sent to a state mental health facility until her competency is restored.—
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
24 May 2026
-
She is set to appear June 2 in the same courtroom where a judge recently found that a man accused of stalking Jennifer Aniston was incompetent to stand trial.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
20 May 2026
Adjective
-
The team overachieved this season partly because Mazzulla turned an inexperienced supporting cast into a strength.—
Jay King,
New York Times,
28 May 2026
-
Short selling can be an intellectually demanding approach to the market, and many inexperienced traders fall into a trap, lured by overvaluation and hype.—
David Capablanca,
Forbes.com,
28 May 2026
Adjective
-
Kabuga, somewhere in his 90s — his age is disputed — and suffering from severe dementia, had been forced to remain in the United Nations detention facility in The Hague after he was found unfit to stand trial in 2023 as no country was willing to take him in, prolonging the case against him.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
20 May 2026
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Paxton, meanwhile, has sought to cast Cornyn as a creature of the Washington establishment, while Cornyn has attacked Paxton as unfit for office, pointing to his years of legal and political controversy, including his 2023 impeachment by the Texas House.—
Luke Fountain,
CNBC,
19 May 2026
Adjective
-
The comedic farce by Peter Quilter is based on Jenkins, an American socialite and amateur coloratura soprano who during the early 20th century was known for being flamboyant in attire and having a notably poor singing voice.—
Elizabeth Marie Himchak,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
26 May 2026
-
One example includes looking at amateur war bloggers—sometimes soldiers themselves—in contrast to war journalists.—
Jeremy Saks,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
26 May 2026
Adjective
-
Mix Materials The beauty in the unfitted kitchen aesthetic is found in its collected look.—
Patricia Shannon,
Better Homes & Gardens,
6 May 2025
-
The venerable American clan at the center of the narrator’s reminiscences are wholly unfitted to the modern world and no longer endowed with the fortune that one of them brought home long ago on clipper ships.—
Daniel Akst,
WSJ,
2 Sep. 2022
Adjective
-
Road accidents kill thousands in Bangladesh every year, due to a combination of poor road conditions, unskilled driving and inadequate oversight of traffic rules.—
Adam England,
PEOPLE,
25 May 2026
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In an email to Krebs, Valadon claimed that the repo’s commit logs show that GitHub’s default protections against committing secrets—protections designed to protect unwitting or unskilled developers against exactly this kind of stupidness—had been disabled by the repo’s administrator.—
Lee Hutchinson,
ArsTechnica,
19 May 2026
Adjective
-
This often surprises people because, biologically speaking, humans aren’t entirely incapable of detecting UV light.—
Scott Travers,
Forbes.com,
23 May 2026
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More than half the field was involved in crashes during the first two segments, eliminating Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain and leaving Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson with damaged cars incapable of contending.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
18 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Unskillful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unskillful. Accessed 31 May. 2026.
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