Which to use
“delete” is a verb and “désuète” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,817
- “delete” frequency rank
- #47,309
- “désuète” frequency rank
- 90126
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | delete | désuète |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de deleter. | Féminin singulier de désuet. |
Where the eye mixes delete and désuète
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. delete runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against désuète's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between delete and désuète
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: delete is \di.lit\ while désuète is \de.sɥɛt\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90126, 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\. désuète is at rank #47,309, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.sɥɛt\.
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 90126, this pair ranks #5,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of delete vs désuète
Shared letters: det. Private to "delete": l. Private to "désuète": suèé.
"delete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "désuète" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- delete ← ddelete · deelte · deleet · delette · dellete · deltee · dleete · edlete
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "delete" and "désuète" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "delete" vs "désuète" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "delete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "désuète" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #5,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "delete" and "désuète" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déduite 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 #5,125 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.