Maladroit

adjective

/ˌmæləˈdrɔɪt/

Lacking skill or dexterity, especially in handling situations or people; clumsy, inept, or tactless in a way that causes annoyance or offence.

✍️ Usage in a UPSC answer

The government's maladroit handling of the farm-law repeal — abrupt, opaque and bereft of prior consultation — squandered an opportunity to rebuild trust and instead deepened the very agrarian disquiet it had hoped to allay.

Synonyms

ineptclumsybunglinggaucheham-fistedtactless

Antonyms

adroitdeftdexterousskilful

🌱 Word Family

maladroitly (adv), maladroitness (n), adroit (adj), adroitly (adv), adroitness (n)

🔡 Root

French mal- = badly (Latin malus) + adroit = skilful (Latin directus = straight); English 1670s

📜 Etymology

From French maladroit, from mal- "badly" (from Latin male/malus) + adroit "skilful" (from the phrase à droit "according to right," from Latin directus "straight"); entered English in the 1670s-1680s.

🧠 Memory Hook

Split it as "mal- + adroit": adroit means skilful, and the prefix "mal-" (as in malfunction, malpractice) flips it to "badly skilled" — that is, clumsy.

🏛️ Governance 📖 Seen in: Governance, Transparency & Accountabil...

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