deter
/dɪˈtɝ/verb
deter is spelled D-E-T-E-R. The wrong spelling people search most is deterr: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 96 of all searches for the word. Deter is a verb meaning “To prevent something from happening”.
How many letters and syllables are in deter?
| Letters | 5: D-E-T-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words; the 15,368th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, deterr, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell deter?
Deter is spelled D-E-T-E-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 96 of the searches for deter in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is deter?
Deter appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th 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 deter?
- UK /dɪˈtɜː/
- US /dɪˈtɝ/
- /dɪˈtɛr/
Deter 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-deter.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with deter?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as deter from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹ/):
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 deter
- deters present, singular, he/she/it
- deterring participle, present
- deterred participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does deter mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To prevent something from happening.
- 2
To persuade someone not to do something; to discourage.
Their boss deterred them from both taking holidays at the same time, claiming he couldn't manage it all on his own.
- 3
To distract someone from something.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Deter in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | empêcher , dissuader, décourager |
| German | verhindern, abwenden, unterbinden , abhalten, abbringen, zurückhalten |
| Portuguese | impedir , dissuadir, desencorajar |
| Spanish | evitar, prevenir, disuadir , desalentar, deterrer |
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 deter come from?
Borrowed from Latin dēterreō (“deter, discourage”), from de (“from”) + terreō (“to frighten”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).