dilettante
/ˈdɪlɪˌtɑnt/noun, adjective
dilettante is spelled D-I-L-E-T-T-A-N-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is dilletante: about 170 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 12 of all searches for the word. Dilettante is a noun meaning “An amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious…”. The plural of dilettante is dilettanti or dilettantes.
How many letters and syllables are in dilettante?
| Letters | 10: D-I-L-E-T-T-A-N-T-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 68,248th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, dilletante, about 170 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 dilettante?
Dilettante is spelled D-I-L-E-T-T-A-N-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 12 of the searches for dilettante 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 dilettante?
Dilettante appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 68,248th 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 dilettante?
- UK /dɪlɪˈtænti/
- UK /dɪləˈtɒnti/
- US /ˈdɪlɪˌtɑnt/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dilettante.wav, En-us-dilettante.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of dilettante
- dilettanti plural
- dilettantes plural
- dilettant
- more dilettante comparative
- most dilettante superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dilettante mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest.
- 2
derogatoryA person with a general but superficial interest in any art or a branch of knowledge.
adjective
- 1
Pertaining to or like a dilettante.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dilettante in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | dilettante , dilettantesque |
| German | Dilettant, Dilettantin, Amateur, Amateurin, Stümper, Stümperin |
| Portuguese | diletante |
| Spanish | diletante, dilettante |
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 dilettante come from?
From Italian dilettante, present participle of dilettare (“to delight”), from Latin dēlectāre (“to delight”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).