In-cŏm′pe-tençe or In-cŏm′pe-ten-çy, n.

n. [Fr. incompétence, Sp. incompetencia, It. incompetenza.]

1. The quality of being incompetent; want of competence; want of sufficient power, either physical, intellectual, or moral; insufficiency; inadequacy; as, the incompetency of a child for hard labor, or of an idiot for intellectual efforts, or of the eyes for observing the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the like.
2. (Law.) (a.) Want of competency or legal fitness to be heard or admitted as a witness, or to sit or act as a juror, in the trial of a cause. (b.) (Scotch & French Law.) The state of a judge who has not jurisdiction of a cause, or who is disqualified for hearing it. Bouvier. Erskine.