indelible
/ɪnˈdɛləbl/adjective
indelible is spelled I-N-D-E-L-I-B-L-E. The wrong spelling people search most is indelable: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 58 of all searches for the word. Indelible is an adjective meaning “Having the quality of being difficult to delete, remove, wash away, blot out, or efface”.
How many letters and syllables are in indelible?
| Letters | 9: I-N-D-E-L-I-B-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 36,176th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, indelable, about 50 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 indelible?
Indelible is spelled I-N-D-E-L-I-B-L-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 59 of the searches for indelible 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 indelible?
Indelible appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,176th 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 indelible?
- /ɪnˈdɛləbl/
Indelible has 4 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-indelible.ogg, En-au-indelible.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of indelible
- more indelible comparative
- most indelible superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does indelible mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Having the quality of being difficult to delete, remove, wash away, blot out, or efface.
This ink spot on the contract is indelible.
- 2
Incapable of being canceled, lost, or forgotten.
That horrible story just might make an indelible impression on the memory.
- 3
Incapable of being annulled.
November 7, 1678, Thomas Sprat, a sermon preached at the Anniversary Meeting of the Sons of Clergymen in the Church of St Mary-le-Bow They are […] endued with indelible power from above.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Indelible in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | indélébile |
| German | hartnäckig, unauslöschlich |
| Portuguese | indelével, inextinguível , inesquecível , inanulável |
| Spanish | indeleble |
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 indelible come from?
From Latin indēlēbilis (“indestructible”). By surface analysis, in- + delible.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).