INABILITY in a Sentence

Learn INABILITY from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For INABILITY, below is one of 24 sentences:
The Old Guard signified their disapproval by a sheaf of cards, regretting their inability to accept Scarlett's kind invitation.

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 Meanings and Examples of INABILITY
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
inability
 n.  lack of ability, especially mental ability, to do something
Classic Sentence: (19 in 2 pages)
1  In these accomplishments the twins excelled, and they were equally outstanding in their notorious inability to learn anything contained between the covers of books.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER I
2  The Old Guard signified their disapproval by a sheaf of cards, regretting their inability to accept Scarlett's kind invitation.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLIX
3  The inability thus to solace her outraged feelings gave her a paralyzing sense of insignificance.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: Chapter 15
4  Left to herself, Gerty mused distressfully upon her friend's plight, and her own inability to relieve it.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 8
5  Lily had taken up her work early in January: it was now two months later, and she was still being rebuked for her inability to sew spangles on a hat-frame.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 10
6  The more I consider this mighty tail, the more do I deplore my inability to express it.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 86. The Tail.
7  The latter shook his head, and made a gesture indicative of his inability to reply.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 23
8  Duncan, observing that she trembled in a manner which betrayed her inability to stand, gently induced her to be seated, while he recounted those leading incidents which it has been our task to accord.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 25
9  From the total inability of the scout to address the Hurons in their own language, he was compelled to trust the conversation entirely to David.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 26
10  His knowledge of his inability to take vengeance for it made his rage into a dark and stormy specter, that possessed him and made him dream of abominable cruelties.
The Red Badge of Courage By Stephen Crane
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 17
11  It was not so much the conviction that she was disinherited that caused her grief, but her total inability to account for the feelings which had provoked her grandfather to such an act.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 59. The Will.
12  Noirtier, burning with impatience and terror, was in despair at his utter inability to help his old domestic, whom he regarded more in the light of a friend than a servant.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 79. The Lemonade.
13  Cavalcanti, as the count's father, who highly approved of the union, regretted his inability to leave Parma at that time, and promised a wedding gift of a hundred and fifty thousand livres.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 84. Beauchamp.
14  After completely exhausting herself, she stopped to take breath: and, as if suddenly recollecting herself, and deploring her inability to do something she was bent upon, wrung her hands, and burst into tears.
Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXIX
15  There was no expression of surprise, no assumption of an inability to understand his meaning.
Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLIV
Example Sentence:
1  Wall Street analysts have been highly critical of the company's seeming inability to control costs.
2  His inability to resist temptation would eventually cost him his freedom.
3  His inability to speak English puts him at a disadvantage when he attends international conferences.
4  The fundamental problem lies in their inability to distinguish between reality and invention.
5  They let her go because of what her inability to meet obligations under her contract.