deletevsDelleConfusable pair

Quick tell: delete is a verb, Delle is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“delete” is a verb and “Delle” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,935
“delete” frequency rank
#37,880
“Delle” frequency rank
42815
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delete Delle
Definition To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device. A commune in Territoire de Belfort department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, on the border with Switzerland.

Letter map: delete vs Delle

Shared letters muted; letters that set delete and Delle apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
delete
5 ch
Delle

Part-of-speech tell for delete / Delle

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: delete is averb and Delleaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42815, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delete is recorded at frequency rank #4,935, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈliːt/. Delle is at rank #37,880, tagged as aname.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 42815, this pair ranks #245,843 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of delete vs Delle

Shared letters: del. Private to "delete": t. Private to "Delle": -.

"delete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "Delle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deleteddelete · deelte · deleet · delette · dellete · deltee · dleete · edlete
  • Delleddelle · dele · delel · dlele · edlle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "delete" for "Delle" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delete" is a verb and "Delle" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "delete" vs "Delle" - which ranks higher?
"delete" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,935 in our English list, against #37,880 for "Delle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "delete" vs "Delle" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "delete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Delle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #245,843 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delete" and "Delle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Delle vs dilly". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #245,843 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list