What's the difference between incapable and unable?

Incapable


Definition:

  • (a.) Wanting in ability or qualification for the purpose or end in view; not large enough to contain or hold; deficient in physical strength, mental or moral power, etc.; not capable; as, incapable of holding a certain quantity of liquid; incapable of endurance, of comprehension, of perseverance, of reform, etc.
  • (a.) Not capable of being brought to do or perform, because morally strong or well disposed; -- used with reference to some evil; as, incapable of wrong, dishonesty, or falsehood.
  • (a.) Not in a state to receive; not receptive; not susceptible; not able to admit; as, incapable of pain, or pleasure; incapable of stain or injury.
  • (a.) Unqualified or disqualified, in a legal sense; as, a man under thirty-five years of age is incapable of holding the office of president of the United States; a person convicted on impeachment is thereby made incapable of holding an office of profit or honor under the government.
  • (a.) As a term of disgrace, sometimes annexed to a sentence when an officer has been cashiered and rendered incapable of serving his country.
  • (n.) One who is morally or mentally weak or inefficient; an imbecile; a simpleton.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Absorption of this serum with embryo cells eliminated cytotoxicity against MCA-2 and MCA-12 cells, but was incapable of lowering the titer against MCA-3 cells below 1:40.
  • (2) CP analogues that lacked the NH group at N3 or were otherwise incapable of alkyl isocyanate release were inactive.
  • (3) An analysis of 22 non-invasive EPEC TnphoA mutants revealed that seven have insertions in the EAF plasmid and are incapable of localized adherence.
  • (4) Exact comparisons of recovery of ocular tone (Maddox Wing test) between the anaesthetics were not possible as both Althesin and methohexitone rendered some patients incapable of taking the tests in the early post-operative period.
  • (5) Similarly, the fetus is an ideal recipient of allogeneic fetal cells as it is incapable of rejecting them early in gestation.
  • (6) Myocardial perfusion is best evaluated at rest and during exercise, however, alternative methods have been sought to increase coronary blood flow in patients incapable of performing adequate exercise.
  • (7) Cocaine was considered incapable of producing dependence in 1980 but was recently proclaimed the drug of greatest national health concern.
  • (8) We have documented that the profoundly depressed postcardiotomy left ventricle, initially incapable of ejection, can recover during total left ventricular unloading with the abdominal left ventricular assist device support over a seven-day period.
  • (9) Results are presented which show that the D-xylose isomerases present in Streptomyces olivaceus and Streptomyces phaeochromogenes NRRL B-3559 are incapable of utilizing D-lyxose as a substrate.
  • (10) In contrast, all three molecules were incapable of inducing IFN-alpha when added into either purified monocyte or lymphocyte cultures.
  • (11) Extracts of liver and lung were incapable of catabolizing any of the analogues.
  • (12) In fact the then president, Amadou Toumani Touré, known as "ATT" more out of derision than any sense of affection, was viewed as deeply corrupt and incapable of delivering the changes that Mali – still one of the five least-developed countries in the world – needed.
  • (13) On Thursday, conservative analyst Ross Douthat wrote: “A party whose leading factions often seemed incapable of budging from 1980s-era dogma suddenly caved completely.” On Friday, former top Barack Obama strategist David Axelrod tweeted : “The Day After: seems as if @GOP establishment is measuring @realDonaldTrump as a moldable vessel.
  • (14) I seem incapable of capturing the stories of those I meet.
  • (15) It can bring about specialized transduction of proAB and phoE mutants of E. coli, but it is incapable of general transduction.
  • (16) It said Damascus had proved itself "incapable of using its weapons systems proportionately or discriminately" and had fired lethal Scud missiles against its own cities, such as Aleppo.
  • (17) In the 1990s he was almost incapable of not writing a masterpiece – The Human Stain, The Plot Against America, I Married a Communist.
  • (18) Methaemoglobin is incapable of transporting oxygen.
  • (19) Sheep infection trials indicate that the PLD-negative C. pseudotuberculosis strain (Toxminus) is incapable of inducing caseous lymphadentis (cheesy gland) even at doses two logs higher than that at which the wild-type strain produces the disease.
  • (20) Cotransformants of yeast cells by two partially homologous plasmids, one of which is incapable of autonomous replication, has been used to construct multiply marked recombinant plasmids.

Unable


Definition:

  • (a.) Not able; not having sufficient strength, means, knowledge, skill, or the like; impotent' weak; helpless; incapable; -- now usually followed by an infinitive or an adverbial phrase; as, unable for work; unable to bear fatigue.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Unfortunately, due to confidentiality clauses that have been imposed on us by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, we are unable to provide our full names and … titles … However, we believe the evidence that will be submitted will validate the statements that we are making in this submission.” The submission detailed specific allegations – including names and dates – of sexual abuse of child detainees, violence and bullying of children, suicide attempts by children and medical neglect.
  • (2) Consensual but rationally weak criteria devised to extract inferences of causality from such results confirm the generic inadequacy of epidemiology in this area, and are unable to provide definitive scientific support to the perceived mandate for public health action.
  • (3) PMN were found to be nonpermissive for HSV replication and were unable to bind virus in the absence of antibody.
  • (4) E-RFC enriched for T lymphocytes and depleted of macrophages synthesized considerable DNA in response to stimulation with PHA, but were unable to produce significant bone resorbing activity in tissue culture unless macrophages were re-added to the E-RFC.
  • (5) Where he has taken a stand, like on gun control after the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, Obama was unable to achieve legislative change.
  • (6) A failure to reach a solution would potentially leave 200,000 homes without affordable cover, leaving owners unable to sell their properties and potentially exposing them to financial hardship.
  • (7) We have therefore been unable to confirm that SV5 may be a major intrathecal immunogen in multiple sclerosis.
  • (8) The ability of ligand to stimulate its own synthesis and that of its receptor suggests the presence of an autocrine positive feedback loop, however we were unable to break this loop in the breast cancer cells by antibodies that blocked the interaction of TGF alpha with the EGF receptor.
  • (9) The lymph node cells obtained from the animals 1 day after desensitization were unable to produce MIF in the presence of either antigen.
  • (10) It happens to anyone and everyone and this has been an 11-year battle.” Emergency services were called to the oval about 6.30pm to treat Luke for head injuries, but were unable to revive him.
  • (11) Therefore, 31P MR spectroscopy may be unable to quantify the cell fraction of a tumor that has radiobiologic hypoxia.
  • (12) A temperature-sensitive mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was identified which at the restrictive temperature of 37 degrees C is unable to secrete a number of cell wall-associated proteins and thus resembles previously reported sec mutants.
  • (13) The enzyme alone, solubilized and free from cytocrome b5 reductase and cytochrome b5, was unable to catalyze the desaturation of stearoyl CoA.
  • (14) "It will strike consumers as unfair that whilst the company is still trading, they are unable to use gift cards and vouchers," he said.
  • (15) The data suggest that the hypothalamic beta-E containing neurons were unable to adapt to nicotine's repeated effects on this system.
  • (16) Analogues of ATP were unable to reactivate K+-ATP channels even in the presence of Mg2+.
  • (17) PRL, human CG, ACTH, insulin, glucagon, and heat-inactivated TSH were unable to prevent the effect of medium replacement on dopaminergic inhibition of TSH and DA receptor binding.
  • (18) We were unable to detect IL-4 production by mononuclear cells and CD4+ T cell subsets suggesting that, if it is produced at all, IL-4 is produced in extremely small quantities.
  • (19) One elderly woman was left alone in the dark for hours unable to find food or drink.
  • (20) Inexperienced physicians are often unable to immediately identify these translucencies as air enclosures in the intracranial cavity.