Which to use
“dele” is a contraction and “delete” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #261
- “dele” frequency rank
- #33,777
- “delete” frequency rank
- 34038
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dele | delete |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | contração da preposição de com o pronome pessoal ele | excluir |
Where the eye mixes dele and delete
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dele with delete
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dele is /ˈde.lɨ/ while delete is /dɪ.ˈliːt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dele” sits inside “delete”, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dele is recorded at frequency rank #261, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈde.lɨ/. delete is at rank #33,777, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪ.ˈliːt/.
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 34038, this pair ranks #33,333 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dele vs delete
Shared letters: del. Private to "dele": -. Private to "delete": t.
"dele" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "delete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dele" and "delete" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "dele" vs "delete" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dele" and "delete" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dele" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "delete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,333 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dele" and "delete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delete vs demente". 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 #33,333 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.