dele
/ˈdiːliː/
"dele" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dele” is uncommon English (frequency #52,882 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,882
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To delete.
Corpus desk
Index EN-dele · dele · English
dele · rank #52,882 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,882
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH defrost
Nearest frequency peer: defrost (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “dele”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Daugherty
Daugherty
47,125 corpus weight
- decimate
decimate
47,123 corpus weight
- deform
deform
47,121 corpus weight
- defrost
defrost
47,120 corpus weight
- dele
dele
47,119 corpus weight
- Dench
Dench
47,116 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “dele” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dele |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈdiːliː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #52,882 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “dele” in English
Rare enough to double-check
dele is uncommon English at frequency #52,882 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈdiːliː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To delete.".
Zero misspellings are on record for dele in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin dēlē, second person singular imperative of dēleo (“delete”). Alternatively, a clipping of deleatur. The correct English form is dele, spelled D-E-L-E.
Definition
- 1To delete.
Etymology
From Latin dēlē, second person singular imperative of dēleo (“delete”). Alternatively, a clipping of deleatur.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dele", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).