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delegate

/ˈdɛlɪɡət/noun, verb

delegate is spelled D-E-L-E-G-A-T-E: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 5.0 times per million words in written English, the 11,198th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, delegate means “A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of delegate is delegates.

How many letters and syllables are in delegate?

Letters8: D-E-L-E-G-A-T-E
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.0 times per million words; the 11,198th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is delegate?

Delegate appears 5.0 times per million words in written English, the 11,198th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce delegate?

  • UK /ˈdɛlɪɡət/
  • US /ˈdɛlɪɡət/
  • US /ˈdɛləɡət/

As a verb (“To commit tasks and responsibilities to others, especially…”): /ˈdɛlɪˌɡeɪt/, /ˈdɛlɪˌɡeɪt/, /ˈdɛləˌɡeɪt/.

Delegate has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-delegate_(noun).wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-delegate_(verb).wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of delegate

  • delegates plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • delegating participle, present
  • delegated participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does delegate mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.

  2. 2

    A representative at a conference, etc.

  3. 3

    USAn appointed representative in some legislative bodies.

  4. 4

    A type of variable storing a reference to a method with a particular signature, analogous to a function pointer.

  5. 5

    A member of a governmental legislature who lacks voting power.

    The house of delegates in apartheid-era South Africa lacked any real voting power.

verb

  1. 1

    To commit tasks and responsibilities to others, especially subordinates.

  2. 2

    To commit (a task or responsibility) to someone, especially a subordinate.

  3. 3

    To appoint (someone) as one's representative.

  4. 4

    (of a subdomain) To give away authority over a subdomain; to allow someone else to create sub-subdomains of a subdomain of one's own.

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoletedelegated

  2. 2

    obsoleteActing as a delegate, delegated; of, pertaining to a delegate

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate delegate?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of delegate: Del., del.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Delegate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdélégué, déléguée (deputy, envoy, representative), déléguer (to commit a task to someone)
GermanDelegierter, Delegierte, Abgeordneter, Abgeordnete, Vertreter, Vertreterin (deputy, envoy, representative)
Portuguesedelegado, delegada (deputy, envoy, representative), delegar (to commit a task to someone)
Spanishdelegado, delegada (deputy, envoy, representative), diputar, delegar (to commit a task to someone)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does delegate come from?

From Middle English delegat, from Old French delegat, from Latin dēlēgātus substantivized from the nominative masculine singular of dēlēgātus, the perfect passive participle of dēlēgō (“to send, assign, delegate”), see -ate (noun-forming suffix). See also legate.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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