# delight

> English word · Noun · IPA /dəˈlaɪt/ · frequency rank #7,440

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

## 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.

## Easily confused with
- **Dwight** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/delight-vs-dwight)
- **delights** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/delight-vs-delights)
- **delighted** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/delight-vs-delighted)
- **daylight** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/daylight-vs-delight)

## Common misspellings (11)
`ddelight`, `deilght`, `delgiht`, `deligght`, `delighht`, `delightt`, `deligth`, `delihgt`, `dellight`, `dleight`, `edlight`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/delight