How to Use inept in a Sentence

inept

adjective
Definition of ineptnext
Synonyms for ineptnext
  • He was completely inept at sports.
  • He made an inept attempt to apologize.
  • Other than that, the real suspense will be whether the M’s are inept enough to earn the No. 1 draft pick.
    — Matt Calkins, The Seattle Times, 13 Jan. 2019
  • This is the groaning game, an inept tale of danger, entrapment and dismemberment.
    — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 28 Feb. 2019
  • But the book left me stumped and mildly irritated: What millennial woman is inept enough to need this?
    — Nneka McGuire, Dallas News, 25 June 2019
  • If Republicans were trying to stop minorities from voting, their schemes were inept.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 3 May 2019
  • The defense was inept last October against run-heavy Boston College.
    — Jake Lourim, The Courier-Journal, 7 July 2018
  • His government, however, was inept and heavy-handed, and by the summer of 2013, there were massive street protests against him.
    — Laura King, latimes.com, 17 June 2019
  • An inept armed robber tried to hit a Pompano Beach BP station and got his caught with his fingers in the register — by force.
    — David J. Neal, miamiherald, 9 July 2018
  • Yet in its mayhem is either an admirable refusal to compromise or an inept inability to consolidate.
    — Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Oct. 2024
  • And someone like me — small, physically inept and (according to many commenters) not too bright and/or possibly deranged — has no business wielding a gun.
    — Amy Dickinson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 June 2019
  • And someone like me: small, physically inept, and – (according to many commenters) not too bright and/or possibly deranged – has no business wielding a gun.
    — Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 1 July 2019
  • And someone like me: small, physically inept, and — (according to many commenters) not too bright and/or possibly deranged — has no business wielding a gun.
    — Amy Dickinson, The Mercury News, 1 July 2019
  • The Lakers looked like a bumbling organization, and the Pelicans looked inept.
    — Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY, 16 June 2019
  • These soundtracked passages of almost uniformly inept Meisner capoeira are all the more grating because the interactions on either side of them are so vibrant.
    — Max Maller, Chicago Reader, 11 July 2018
  • In negotiating these disputes, Isabella would prove to be as cunning as her older brother Henry was inept.
    — National Geographic, 28 Mar. 2019
  • Tim Piazza was injured in falling down a set of basement steps, after which fraternity members made inept and even counterproductive efforts to help him.
    — Mark Scolforo, The Seattle Times, 15 Oct. 2018
  • In the grand scheme of things, the new Space Jam isn’t hateful or inept.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 14 July 2021
  • But the late push wasn’t enough to make up for an inept start by both sides of the ball.
    — Rohan Nadkarni, NBC News, 23 Sep. 2024
  • The leadership in this country, on the left and the right, have proven to be inept.
    — Kweku Ramel Akyirefi Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5 June 2020
  • The Bruins looked inept in many of their first six games.
    — Brian Howell, The Denver Post, 27 Oct. 2019
  • It’s not as though the Jazz were wholly inept in Game 2.
    — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Apr. 2022
  • Absent Carr, the Raiders have looked inept, both last year and this year.
    — Tom Krasovic, sandiegouniontribune.com, 13 Oct. 2017
  • Janet Yellen, join the other hand, was and is an inept messager.
    — George Calhoun, Forbes, 23 Sep. 2021
  • The right to a speedy trial doesn’t mean much if your courts are corrupt or inept.
    — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 28 Jan. 2018
  • On the flip side, the reason the defenders were on the field so long is because the offense was, for the most part, inept.
    — Don Norcross, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Oct. 2022
  • An inept alien named Zim is sent to Earth by his peers who don't want to deal with him anymore.
    — Stacey Grant, Seventeen, 15 Sep. 2022
  • The Texans, after all, are about as inept as an NFL team gets.
    — Mark Maske, Anchorage Daily News, 12 Dec. 2022
  • Cal came in, all but inept on offense, but left the game vs. WSU with season highs in points and yards.
    — oregonlive, 21 Nov. 2019
  • But far less heroic reform programs fail all the time in the current world, doomed by poor planning, inept leadership, and thorny politics.
    — Nicholas Eberstadt, Foreign Affairs, 10 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inept.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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