diligent
/ˈdɪlɪdʒənt/adjective
diligent is spelled D-I-L-I-G-E-N-T. The wrong spelling people search most is dilligent: about 610 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 12 of all searches for the word. Diligent is an adjective meaning “Performing with industrious concentration; hard-working and focused”.
How many letters and syllables are in diligent?
| Letters | 8: D-I-L-I-G-E-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.7 times per million words; the 21,516th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, dilligent, about 610 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 diligent?
Diligent is spelled D-I-L-I-G-E-N-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 12 of the searches for diligent 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 diligent?
Diligent appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th 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 diligent?
- UK /ˈdɪlɪdʒənt/
Diligent has 3 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-diligent.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of diligent
- more diligent comparative
- most diligent superlative
- deligent
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does diligent mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Performing with industrious concentration; hard-working and focused.
Scientists are very diligent in their work.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Diligent in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense hard-working and focused:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | industrieux, diligent |
| German | fleißig, arbeitsam, eifrig, sorgfältig, dienstbeflissen, tüchtig |
| Portuguese | diligente |
| Spanish | diligente |
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 diligent come from?
From Middle English diligent, from Old French diligent, from Latin dīligēns (“careful, attentive, diligent”), present participle of dīligō (“to love, esteem much”, literally “to choose, select”), from dī-, dis- (“apart”) + legō (“to choose”); see elect and select.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).