Which to use
“delete” is a verb and “délétère” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,817
- “delete” frequency rank
- #29,744
- “délétère” frequency rank
- 72561
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | delete | délétère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de deleter. | Nuisible ou dangereux pour la santé, nocif, qui peut causer la mort. |
Where the eye mixes delete and délétère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: delete vs délétère
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: delete is \di.lit\ while délétère is \de.le.tɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72561, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
delete is recorded at frequency rank #42,817, classified as averb, pronounced \di.lit\. délétère is at rank #29,744, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.le.tɛʁ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 72561, this pair ranks #43,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of delete vs délétère
Shared letters: delt. Private to "delete": -. Private to "délétère": rèé.
"delete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "délétère" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- delete ← ddelete · deelte · deleet · delette · dellete · deltee · dleete · edlete
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "delete" and "délétère" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "delete" or "délétère"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "delete" and "délétère" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "delete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "délétère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "delete" and "délétère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delete vs désuète". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #43,580 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.