delight

/dəˈlaɪt/

//dəˈlaɪt// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"delight" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“delight” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #7,440. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#7,440
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Joy; pleasure.

Corpus desk

Index EN-delight · delight · English

delight · rank #7,440 · 11 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,440
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH curiosity

Nearest frequency peer: curiosity (-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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “delight”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “delight” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

delight vs Dwight
57% similar
delight vs delights
88% similar
delight vs delighted
78% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for delight
PropertyValue
Headworddelight
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/dəˈlaɪt/
Letters7
Frequency rank#7,440
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “delight”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).delightlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “curiosity” (#7,439), “determining” (#7,441), “coupled” (#7,438). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “delight” is #7,440. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around delight (IPA /dəˈlaɪt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #7,440 among 3,470 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for delight, with forms such as "ddelight", "deilght", and "delgiht". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "Dwight", "delights", "delighted", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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… The correct English form is delight, spelled D-E-L-I-G-H-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Joy; pleasure.
  2. 2
    Something that gives great joy or pleasure.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how delight appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. A fool hath no delight in understanding.
  2. […] the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Etymology

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. The -gh- may also be an attempt to represent the Latin -c-; compare obsolete indight for indict.

Synonyms

delection

This word in other languages

deleite(Español)plaisir(Français)Freude(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddelight
  • deilght
  • delgiht
  • deligght
  • delighht
  • delightt
  • deligth
  • delihgt
  • dellight
  • dleight
  • edlight

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of delight - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

ddelight1deilght2delgiht2deligght1delighht1delightt1deligth2delihgt2
Edit distance from "delight"

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

How do you spell "delight"?
"delight" is spelled D-E-L-I-G-H-T. The IPA pronunciation is /dəˈlaɪt/.
What does "delight" mean?
As a noun, "delight" means: Joy; pleasure.
What words are commonly confused with "delight"?
"delight" is commonly confused with "Dwight", "delights", "delighted". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "delight"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "delight" is /dəˈlaɪt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "delight"?
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 Pr... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "delight", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

coupled#7,438columns#7,431caution#7,426harmful#7,458

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

bullying11 variantsheadache11 variantslicence11 variantstwisted11 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list