deteriorate
/dɪˈtɪɹ.iə.ɹeɪt/verb
deteriorate is spelled D-E-T-E-R-I-O-R-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is deteriate: about 200 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Deteriorate is a verb meaning “To make worse; to make inferior in quality or value; to impair”.
How many letters and syllables are in deteriorate?
| Letters | 11: D-E-T-E-R-I-O-R-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words; the 23,835th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, deteriate, about 200 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell deteriorate?
Deteriorate is spelled D-E-T-E-R-I-O-R-A-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for deteriorate 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 deteriorate?
Deteriorate appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th 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 deteriorate?
- UK /dɪˈtɪə.ɹɪə.ɹeɪt/
- UK /dɪˈtɪə.ɹɪ.eɪt/
- US /dɪˈtɪɹ.iə.ɹeɪt/
Deteriorate has 5 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-deteriorate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of deteriorate
- deteriorates present, singular, he/she/it
- deteriorating participle, present
- deteriorated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does deteriorate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To make worse; to make inferior in quality or value; to impair.
to deteriorate the mind
- 2
To grow worse; to be impaired in quality; to degenerate.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Deteriorate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | détériorer |
| German | verschlechtern , sich verschlechtern |
| Portuguese | deteriorar, piorar, estragar |
| Spanish | deteriorar |
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 deteriorate come from?
Learned borrowing from Late Latin dēteriorātus, perfect passive participle of Late Latin dēteriorō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), further from Latin dēterior (“worse”). Cognate with French détériorer.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).