expletive deleted
"expletive-deleted" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“expletive deleted” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An all-purpose profanity.
Corpus desk
Index EN-expletive-deleted · expletive deleted · English
expletive deleted · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 17 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | expletive deleted |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “expletive deleted” in English
Rare enough to double-check
expletive deleted is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An all-purpose profanity.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for expletive deleted in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Attested since at least the 1930s, but popularized in the U.S. after the Watergate scandal, during which transcripts of conversations were published with profanity replaced by “[EXPLETIVE DELETED]”. The correct English form is expletive deleted, spelled E-X-P-L-E-T-I-V-E- -D-E-L-E-T-E-D.
Definition
- 1An all-purpose profanity.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how expletive deleted appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
His most graphic threat was should I ever commit such a grave violation of his privacy, he would "rip your (string of expletives deleted) head off and (expletives deleted meaning "to defecate") down your (string of expletives deleted) neck."
Because you sold him out just to have a martyr, you expletive deleted.
Etymology
Attested since at least the 1930s, but popularized in the U.S. after the Watergate scandal, during which transcripts of conversations were published with profanity replaced by “[EXPLETIVE DELETED]”.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.