Which to use
“delete” and “déteste” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,817
- “delete” frequency rank
- #2,363
- “déteste” frequency rank
- 45180
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | delete | déteste |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de deleter. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de détester. |
Where the eye mixes delete and déteste
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: delete vs déteste
A purely visual mix-up. delete (\di.lit\) and déteste (\de.tɛst\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45180, 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\. déteste is at rank #2,363, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.tɛst\.
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 45180, this pair ranks #204,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of delete vs déteste
Shared letters: det. Private to "delete": l. Private to "déteste": sé.
"delete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "déteste" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- delete ← ddelete · deelte · deleet · delette · dellete · deltee · dleete · edlete
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "delete" and "déteste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "delete" or "déteste" show up more?
What to do next
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 "déteste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #204,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "delete" and "déteste" 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 #204,750 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.