deletedvsdepletedConfusable pair

Which to use

“deleted” and “depleted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,317
“deleted” frequency rank
#16,002
“depleted” frequency rank
21319
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deleted depleted
Definition Having been deleted or eliminated; absent from the final version. Used up, expended; of which nothing is left.

Letter map: deleted vs depleted

Shared letters muted; letters that set deleted and depleted apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. deleted runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against depleted's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
deleted
8 ch
depleted

Pair insight - deleted / depleted

deleted and depleted are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deleted is recorded at frequency rank #5,317, classified as anadj. depleted is at rank #16,002, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪˈpliːtəd/.

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 21319, this pair ranks #424,760 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deleted vs depleted

Shared letters: delt. Private to "deleted": -. Private to "depleted": p.

"deleted" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "depleted" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deleted ← ddeleted · deelted · deleetd · deletde · deletedd · deletted · delleted · delteed
  • depleted ← ddepleted · delpeted · depelted · depleetd · depletde · depletedd · depletted · deplleted

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deleted" for "depleted" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "deleted" or "depleted" show up more?
"deleted" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,317 in our English list, against #16,002 for "depleted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "deleted" and "depleted". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deleted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "depleted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #424,760 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deleted" and "depleted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deplete vs depleted". 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 #424,760 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