deletevsDelleConfusable pair

Quick tell: delete is a verb, Delle is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“delete” is a verb and “Delle” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,817
“delete” frequency rank
#27,034
“Delle” frequency rank
69851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delete Delle
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de deleter. Commune française, située dans le département du Territoire de Belfort.

Where the eye mixes delete and Delle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
delete
5 ch
Delle

Visual trap between delete and Delle

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: delete is \di.lit\ while Delle is \dɛl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69851, 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\. Delle is at rank #27,034, tagged as aname, pronounced \dɛl\.

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 69851, this pair ranks #53,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of delete vs Delle

Shared letters: del. Private to "delete": t. Private to "Delle": -.

"delete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "Delle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deleteddelete · deelte · deleet · delette · dellete · deltee · dleete · edlete
  • Delleddelle · dele · delel · dlele · edlle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "delete" for "Delle" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delete" is a verb and "Delle" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "delete" vs "Delle" - which ranks higher?
"Delle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,034 in our French list, against #42,817 for "delete". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "delete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Delle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delete" and "Delle" 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 #53,555 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list