Competence refers to the quality or state of being competent, i.e. able or suitable for a general role. It commonly describes the quality or state of being able or suitable for a particular task; the quality or state of being competent for a particular task, the system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language, as opposed to its actual use in concrete situations (performance), cf. :w:linguistic competence, and a sustainable income, which gives the term a broader and more practical sense than a single short definition would suggest. Depending on context, it can also point to the legal authority to deal with a matter and the degree to which a rock is resistant to deformation or flow, so the category can cover literal uses, related ideas, and more figurative extensions of the same core meaning. Taken together, these meanings present Competence as a flexible theme rather than a narrowly technical label, covering the central idea people usually mean when they use the word while still leaving room for closely related senses that appear in real language. Competence therefore works well as a quotation category because it can hold direct statements about the subject, figurative uses that borrow its meaning, and broader reflections that stay anchored to the same central idea.
