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diet

/ˈdaɪət/noun, adjective, verb

diet is spelled D-I-E-T: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 37 times per million words in written English, the 2,618th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, diet means “The food and beverage a person or animal consumes” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of diet is diets or diëts.

How many letters and syllables are in diet?

Letters4: D-I-E-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing37 times per million words; the 2,618th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 diet?

Diet appears 37 times per million words in written English, the 2,618th 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 diet?

  • /ˈdaɪət/
  • /ˈdiːət/

Diet 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-diet.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with diet?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as diet.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: tied, edit, tide, dite.

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 diet

  • diets plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • dieting participle, present
  • dieted participle, past
  • diëts plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does diet mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The food and beverage a person or animal consumes.

    The diet of the giant panda consists mainly of bamboo.

  2. 2

    A controlled regimen of food and drink choices, as to gain or lose weight or otherwise influence health.

    He's been on a diet since he found out that he has coronary atherosclerosis.

  3. 3

    Any habitual intake or consumption.

    He's been reading a steady diet of nonfiction for the last several years.

  4. 4

    A council or assembly of leaders; a formal deliberative assembly.

    the National Diet of Japan

  5. 5

    ScotlandA session of exams.

  6. 6

    A criminal proceeding in court.

  7. 7

    ScotlandA clerical or ecclesiastical function in Scotland.

    a diet of worship

adjective

  1. 1

    Containing less fat, salt, sugar, or calories than normal, or claimed to have such.

    diet soda

  2. 2

    informalHaving certain traits subtracted.

    You folks reduce it to the bible only as being authoritative, impoverishing the faith. "Christianity Lite", diet Christianity for those who can't handle the Whole Meal.

verb

  1. 1

    To modify one's food and beverage intake so as to decrease or increase body weight or influence health.

    I've been dieting for six months, and I've lost some weight.

  2. 2

    datedTo regulate the food of (someone); to put on a diet.

    they will diet themselves, feed and live alone.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo eat; to take one's meals.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo cause to take food; to feed.

noun

as diët
  1. 1

    rareDated spelling of diet.

noun

as DIET
  1. 1

    Abbreviation of direct interspecies electron transfer.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Diet in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdiète, régime (food a person or animal consumes), Diète, parlement (council of leaders)
GermanErnährung, Nahrung, Speiseplan (food a person or animal consumes), Diät (controlled regimen of food), Kost, Konsum (habitual consumption)
Portuguesedieta (food a person or animal consumes), regime (controlled regimen of food), diet (containing lower-than-normal amounts of calories)
Spanishdieta (food a person or animal consumes), estar a dieta, estar dietado, estar adietado (to regulate the food of someone), poner a dieta, dietar (to modify one's food and beverage intake)

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 diet come from?

From Middle English diet, dyet, diete, from Old French diete, from Medieval Latin dieta (“regimen, regulation; assembly”), from Latin diaeta, from Ancient Greek δίαιτα (díaita).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after diet