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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

delete.

To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/dɪˈliːt//diˈliːt//dəˈliːt/

  1. To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.

    transitive

  2. To defeat or dominate.

    Internet · slang

  3. To kill or murder.

    slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Latin dēlētus, past participle of dēlēre (“destroy, blot out, efface”), from dēlēvī, originally perf. tense of dēlinere (“to daub, erase by smudging”), from dē- (“from, away”) + linere (“to smear, wipe”). Original sense first appears c. 1495. In common use for ordering the absence of features of products (such as automobiles) in the 1960s. The computing sense, including the noun form, first appears c. 1977 in Software: Practice & Experience. Not related to deleterious. Doublet of delible and deleble.

noun/dɪˈliːt//diˈliːt//dəˈliːt/

  1. A deletion.

  2. A remainder of a music or video release.

  3. Alternative letter-case form of Delete.

    alt-of · uncountable

  4. The delete character (U+007F or %7F).

Where this word comes from

From Latin dēlētus, past participle of dēlēre (“destroy, blot out, efface”), from dēlēvī, originally perf. tense of dēlinere (“to daub, erase by smudging”), from dē- (“from, away”) + linere (“to smear, wipe”). Original sense first appears c. 1495. In common use for ordering the absence of features of products (such as automobiles) in the 1960s. The computing sense, including the noun form, first appears c. 1977 in Software: Practice & Experience. Not related to deleterious. Doublet of delible and deleble.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.