competence

Etymology

Borrowed from French compétence, from Late Latin competentia.

noun

1. (uncountable) The 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. (countable) The 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. (linguistics) The 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. (dated) A sustainable income.
   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
5. (countable, law, politics) the legal authority to deal with a matter.
   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
6. (geology) The degree to which a rock is resistant to deformation or flow.