Difficulty
Difficulty noun - Something that is a cause for suffering or special effort especially in the attainment of a goal.
Incompetence and difficulty are semantically related. In some cases you can use "Incompetence" instead a noun "Difficulty".
Nearby Word: difficult
Incompetence
Incompetence noun - The lack of sufficient ability, power, or means.
Difficulty and incompetence are semantically related. Sometimes you can use "Difficulty" instead a noun "Incompetence".
Nearby Words: incompetent, incompetently
Mutual synonyms
How words are described
| initial | initial difficulty | initial incompetence |
| considerable | considerable difficulty | considerable incompetence |
| relative | relative difficulty | relative incompetence |
| sheer | sheer difficulty | sheer incompetence |
| Other adjectives: brutal, actual, massive, extreme, incredible, general, apparent, overall, aforementioned. | ||
Both words in one sentence
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TRG will often hate a game because of its perceived difficulty, even when it isn't even that hard and the problem clearly is his own incompetence and stupidity.
Source: Web Video / Third Rate Gamer -
Cutscene Incompetence: The scene in which the mutinous Jack Rackham has his mooks hold Edward and Vane at gunpoint wouldn't have posed much difficulty had it happened in-game.
Cite this Source
Incompetence and Difficulty. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 28, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/difficulty/incompetence
Difficulty & Incompetence. N.p., 2016. Web. 28 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/difficulty/incompetence>.
Incompetence or Difficulty. 2016. Accessed July 28, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/difficulty/incompetence.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "difficulty" and "incompetence" have occurred on timeline