delete vs désuète, What's the Difference?

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 spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set delete and désuète apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

delete

7 ch

désuète

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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

Frequency comparison

delete#42,817

désuète#47,309

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "delete" and "désuète" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delete" is a verb and "désuète" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "delete" or "désuète"?

"delete" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,817 in our French list, against #47,309 for "désuète". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering delete vs désuète

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “delete”; for an adjective, it's “désuète”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “delete” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable