competence vs skill

competence

noun
  • The quality or state of being competent, i.e. able or suitable for a general role. 

  • The quality or state of being able or suitable for a particular task; the quality or state of being competent for a particular task or skill. 

  • The system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language, as opposed to its actual use in concrete situations (performance), cf. linguistic competence. 

  • the legal authority to deal with a matter. 

  • The degree to which a rock is resistant to deformation or flow. 

skill

noun
  • Capacity to do something well; technique, ability. Skills are usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities, which are often thought of as innate. 

verb
  • To know; to understand. 

  • To have knowledge or comprehension; discern. 

  • To set apart; separate. 

  • To discern; have knowledge or understanding; to know how (to). 

  • To have personal or practical knowledge; be versed or practised; be expert or dextrous. 

  • To spend acquired points in exchange for skills. 

adj
  • Great, excellent. 

How often have the words competence and skill occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )