delay
/dɪˈleɪ/
"delay" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“delay” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #3,618. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #3,618
- frequency rank, English
- 26,416
- “D” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
Corpus desk
Index EN-delay · delay · English
delay · rank #3,618 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #3,618
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 26,416
- PHOTO-FINISH decline
Nearest frequency peer: decline (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “delay”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- dean
dean
96,386 corpus weight
- decent
decent
96,385 corpus weight
- decline
decline
96,384 corpus weight
- delay
delay
96,383 corpus weight
- describes
describes
96,382 corpus weight
- desert
desert
96,381 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “delay” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | delay |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɪˈleɪ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #3,618 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “delay” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around delay (IPA /dɪˈleɪ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #3,618 among 26,416 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for delay, with forms such as "ddelay", "dealy", and "delayy". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "dey", "deny", "dell", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English delaien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman delaier, Old French deslaier, from des- + Old French laier (“to leave”), a conflation of Old Frankish *lattjan ("to delay, hinder"; from Proto-Germanic *latjaną (“to delay, hinder, stall”), from Proto-… The correct English form is delay, spelled D-E-L-A-Y.
Definition
- 1A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
- 2An audio effects unit that introduces a controlled delay.
- 3Synonym of promise (“object representing delayed result”).
- 4An amount of time provided on each move before one's clock starts to tick; a less common time control than increment.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how delay appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
the delay before the echo of a sound
Two twenty minutes' delays.
Etymology
From Middle English delaien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman delaier, Old French deslaier, from des- + Old French laier (“to leave”), a conflation of Old Frankish *lattjan ("to delay, hinder"; from Proto-Germanic *latjaną (“to delay, hinder, stall”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- (“to leave, leave behind”)), and Old Frankish *laibijan ("to leave"; from Proto-Germanic *laibijaną (“to leave, cause to stay”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to remain, continue”)). Doublet of dally. Akin to Old English latian (“to delay, hesitate”), Old English latu (“a delay, a hindrance”), Old English lǣfan (“to leave”). More at let (to hinder), late, leave.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ddelay
- dealy
- delayy
- dellay
- delya
- dleay
- edlay
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of delay - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "delay", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.