# delve vs dole

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### delve
*verb · IPA /dɛlv/ · frequency rank #24,139*
To dig into the ground, especially with a shovel.

### dole
*verb · IPA /dəʊl/ · frequency rank #18,808*
To distribute in small amounts; to share out small portions of a meager resource.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/delve-vs-dole