delta
/ˈdɛltə/noun, verb
delta is spelled D-E-L-T-A: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,878th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, delta means “The fourth letter of the modern Greek alphabet Δ, δ” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of delta is deltas.
How many letters and syllables are in delta?
| Letters | 5: D-E-L-T-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 13 times per million words; the 5,878th 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 delta?
Delta appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,878th 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 delta?
- /ˈdɛltə/
- [ˈdɛɫtə]
Delta 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-delta.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-Delta.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with delta?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as delta.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lated, dalet.
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 delta
- deltas plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- deltaing participle, present
- deltaed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does delta mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The fourth letter of the modern Greek alphabet Δ, δ.
- 2
A landform at the mouth of a river where it empties into a body of water.
Nile Delta
- 3
Alternative letter-case form of Delta from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.
- 4
The symbol Δ; A change in a quantity, likely from "d" for "difference".
ΔV - "delta vee"(change in velocity, used in rocketry and orbital mechanics)
- 5
The rate of change in an option value with respect to the underlying asset's price.
- 6
A value in delta notation indicating the relative abundances of isotopes.
- 7
The set of differences between two versions of a file.
When you update the file, the system will only save the deltas.
- 8
informalA small but noticeable effect. Compare epsilon.
This will slow the main code path down, but only by delta.
verb
- 1
To calculate the differences between the characters in an enciphered text and the characters a fixed number of positions previous.
- 2
To compare two versions of the same file in order to determine where they differ (where a programmer has made edits).
noun
- 1
The Delta variant of COVID-19.
noun
- 1
Acronym of Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, an advanced qualification to teach English, higher than the CELTA, accredited by the University of Cambridge.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Delta in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense fourth letter of modern Greek alphabet:
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 delta come from?
From Ancient Greek δέλτα (délta), borrowed from a Phoenician word for "door", ultimately from Proto-Semitic *dalt-. Doublet of dalet.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).