delight
/dəˈlaɪt/noun, verb
delight is spelled D-E-L-I-G-H-T: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 9.3 times per million words in written English, the 7,445th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, delight means “Joy; pleasure” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of delight is delights.
How many letters and syllables are in delight?
| Letters | 7: D-E-L-I-G-H-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 9.3 times per million words; the 7,445th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is delight?
Delight appears 9.3 times per million words in written English, the 7,445th 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 delight?
- /dəˈlaɪt/
- /dɪˈlaɪt/
Delight has 2 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: En-us-delight.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with delight?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as delight.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lighted.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of delight
- delights plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- delighting participle, present
- delighted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does delight mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Joy; pleasure.
- 2
Something that gives great joy or pleasure.
verb
- 1
To give delight to; to affect with great pleasure; to please highly.
A beautiful landscape delights the eye.
- 2
To have or take great pleasure.
A ſclaunderous tunge, a tunge of a ſkolde, Worketh more miſchiefe than can be tolde; That, if I wiſt not to be controlde, Yet ſomwhat to ſay I dare well be bolde,
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Delight in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | plaisir, délice, joie , enchanter, ravir |
| German | Freude, Entzückung, Wohlgefallen, Lust |
| Portuguese | deleite , deliciar, encantar |
| Spanish | deleite, regocijo, delicia, placer, delectación, gozo |
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 delight come from?
Attested from the 13th century, from Middle English delite, from Old French deleiter, deliter, from Latin dēlectāre (“to delight, please”), frequentative of dēlicere (“to allure, entice”), from dē- (“away”) + laciō (“to lure, to deceive”), from Proto-Italic *lakjō (“to draw, pull”), of unknown ultimate origin. Doublet of delect. Related with delectation, delicate, delicious and dilettante. The modern unetymological spelling (instead of expected delite) is influenced by light and other words ending in -ight, such as might, bright, etc.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).