ept

Back-formation from inept; compare apt.

ept (comparative more ept, superlative most ept)

1. Skillful and knowledgeable; adept.
   • 1984, Military Intelligence - Volumes 10-12, page 62:

     These behaviors, developed in extremely bad basic and advanced training conditions were continued in better situations under more ept leadership.

   • 1991, United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Ethics, Preliminary Inquiry Into Allegations Regarding Senators Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and Riegle, and Lincoln Savings and Loan:

     ...known the ways of the world in Washington, and may not have been as one of my colleagues in the legislature said, "very ept", when it came to this stuff.

   • 1991, Anne Geller & ‎M. J. Territo, Restore your life: a living plan for sober people, page 133:

     They're confident, calm, at ease, talkative, cheerful, and above all, socially very "ept."

   • 1994 July 25, Jack Winter, “How I met my wife”, in The New Yorker:

     There were two ways about it, but the chances that someone as flappable as I would be ept enough to become persona grata or a sung hero were slim.

   • 2003, Dana Stabenow, A Grave Denied, →ISBN, page 119:

     And someone who wasn't glacier ept might have thought the mouth of a glacier a great place to hide a body for a long, long time.

• PET, PTE, Pet., Pte, TPE, Tep, pet