deletevsdeltaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#33,777
“delete” frequency rank
#7,134
“delta” frequency rank
40911
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delete delta
Definition excluir quarta letra do alfabeto grego e tem um valor numérico de 4

Letter map: delete vs delta

Shared letters muted; letters that set delete and delta apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
delete
5 ch
delta

Part-of-speech tell for delete / delta

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: delete is averb and deltaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delete is recorded at frequency rank #33,777, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪ.ˈliːt/. delta is at rank #7,134, tagged as anoun.

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 40911, this pair ranks #25,106 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of delete vs delta

Shared letters: delt. Private to "delete": -. Private to "delta": a.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deleteddelete · deelte · deleet · delette · dellete · deltee · dleete · edlete
  • deltaddelta · delat · dellta · deltta · detla · dleta · edlta

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "delete" for "delta" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "delete" is a verb and "delta" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "delete" or "delta"?
"delta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,134 in our Portuguese list, against #33,777 for "delete". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "delete" and "delta".

  • Full dictionary entry for "delete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "delta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,106 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delete" and "delta" 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 #25,106 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list