competence

plural competences

1. uncountableThe quality or state of being competent, i.e. able or suitable for a general role.

   Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence.

   2005, Lies Sercu, Ewa Bandura, Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Competence: An International Investigation

2. countableThe quality or state of being able or suitable for a particular task; the quality or state of being competent for a particular task or skill.
3. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language, as opposed to its actual use in concrete situations (performance), cf. linguistic competence.
4. countabledateduncountableA sustainable income.

   Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, / Lie in three words — health, peace, and competence.

   1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   “money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it. Beyond a competence, it can afford no real satisfaction, as far as mere self is concerned.”

   1811, Jane Austen, chapter 17, in Sense and Sensibility

   A few years ago there lived in a city on the Mississippi a happy family, consisting of a husband, wife, and two children. They were in comfortable circumstances—he able to earn a competence—kind, affable, affectionate, […]

   1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 26

5. countablegovernmentthe legal authority to deal with a matter.

   The bill was denied royal assent because the Scottish Parliament does not have legislative competence on the bill's matter.

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   K C Wheare's definition of federalism requires that two governments be independent and co-ordinate within their own spheres, generally set out by the division of competences codified in a constitution, which is supreme.

   2016, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, “Division of competences in the European Union”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)

   Also, the Constitutional Court has tried to reduce impunity in cases of human rights abuses by narrowly interpreting the legal competence of military justice to investigate military and police officers.

   2003, Rodrigo Uprimny, “The constitutional court and control of presidential extraordinary powers in Colombia”, in Democratization, archived from the original on 09 May 2021

6. countableuncountablegeographyThe degree to which a rock is resistant to deformation or flow.