1The ability to do something successfully or efficiently.

运动员们显示了不同程度的能力。

1. 1.1 The legal authority of a court or other body to deal with a particular matter.
   权限，管辖权
   the court's competence has been accepted

   该法院的权限已被公认包括这些事务。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • A court's competence to grant an anti-suit injunction seems to derive from its jurisdiction to adjudicate.
   • In my submission, the extraterritorial legislative competence does not depend on how another State has dealt with the subject matter.
   • He began by trying to identify the pith and substance of the Safe Streets Act in order to determine if, at least facially, it dealt with matters within provincial legislative competence.
   • However, whether a court with competence should actually vary a foreign trust raises a question governed by the applicable law of the trust.
   • Finally, a ‘Sea-bed Disputes Chamber’ of the Law of the Sea Tribunal has competence over disputes concerning seabed operations and the ISBA.
   • They were concerned more with the manner in which the court should exercise its jurisdiction than with its competence to entertain the motion before it.
   • The legislation containing a ban will be on public health grounds, a policy area within the competence of the Scottish parliament.
   • Unsurprisingly, provinces can't legislate on matters of federal competence and nor can Parliament legislate on matters of provincial competence.
   • In every case when establishing the territorial competence of any given Italian Court, there is implied acceptance of the fact that the specific Court also has Italian jurisdiction.
   • But the courts have no competence to nullify, repeal or amend the legislation in question.
   • Appeal to a Court whose competence is extra-European does not contribute to the progressive formation of European unity.
   • I refer, also, to the powers of general competence of local authorities.
   • The Assembly is given competence to exercise legislative authority in respect of those matters falling under the responsibility of the six Northern Ireland Government Departments.
   • Privatisation of municipal enterprises falls within the competence of the municipal councils.
   • Reports are also filed by specialized agencies with competence in relevant matters.
   • Recently, some of the first cases involving a breach by Member States in the sphere of the Community's external competence reached the Court.
   • The Court further agreed with the Commission that the primary purpose of the requirement that trade between Member States be affected was to allow for jurisdictional competence to be determined.
   • There is no doubt that the court, not the arbitral tribunal, has the competence to determine the court's own jurisdiction in respect of the action that is brought before it.
   • The Commission's role relates only to its legal powers and competence.
   • He claimed that the International Court of Justice in The Hague is the only body with the authority and competence to hear arguments concerning the war's legality.

   Synonyms

   authority, power, control, jurisdiction, ambit, scope, remit
2. 1.2 The ability of a criminal defendant to stand trial, as gauged by their mental ability to understand the proceedings and to assist defense lawyers.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • If this is so, then we must make some major changes in how to view his mental competence.
   • Many of the cases on the legal test for competence have concerned children and young people, and they are discussed in detail in Chapter 12.
   • The Supreme Court considered whether a criminal defendant could be forcibly medicated to maintain his competence to stand trial.
3. 1.3Linguistics A speaker's subconscious, intuitive knowledge of the rules of their language.
   Often contrasted with performance

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Communicative competence is a theory of the nature of such knowledge and proficiency.
   • When assessments are aligned with a prescriptivist view of language ability, many proficient or competent speakers of the language will not fare well on the test for reasons unrelated to language competence.
   • This internal representation is their interlanguage competence.
   • Most testing instruments rely on the assumption that it is possible to separate analytically different aspects of language competence without reference to the context of use.
   • The current interest in the development of communicative competence has led attention to the social uses of language in second language teaching and research.
4. 1.4Medicine Biology Effective performance of the normal function.
   〔生，医〕感受态，反应能力，胜利性，感应性
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Circumstances that upset the balance of immunologic competence, such as stress, can impair the local inflammatory response.
   • This shows that none of the genes absent from B. subtilis 6 is required for competence development.
   • In the bacteria Haemophilus influenza and Bacillus subtilis, starvation has been shown to increase competence for DNA uptake.
   • Alterations in a normal response to inflammatory challenge may impact immune competence and overall animal performance.
   • Second, immune system competence is improved by removal of the large tumor mass.

   Synonyms

   adequacy, appropriateness, suitability, fitness

2dated An income large enough to live on, typically unearned.

他发现自己有一笔足以过舒适生活的收入并且没有债务。