Incompatible

How to spell incompatible

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce incompatible

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does incompatible mean?

1. adjectiveNot able to exist, work, or be used together because of a fundamental conflict or difference.

Incompatible in a sentence

• The new printer turned out to be incompatible with our older laptops.

• Their working styles proved completely incompatible, so the partnership dissolved.

Where does incompatible come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb pati, meaning 'to suffer, bear, or endure', the same root that gives us 'patient' and 'passive'. In Medieval Latin a compound compatibilis developed from compati, literally 'to suffer or feel together', the idea being that two things could endure one another's company. By adding the negating prefix in-, scholars formed the notion of things that could not endure together, that simply would not coexist. English took 'incompatible' in during the late 1400s through French, in early use describing rival church offices that one person could not hold at the same time. The spelling trap is the ending: it is -ible, not -able, because the word descends from a Latin form that took that suffix, and there is no audible difference in speech to warn you.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• com- (together)
• pat (from Latin pati: to suffer, endure)
• -ible (able to be)