delete

verb

de·​lete di-ˈlēt 

dē-

deleted; deleting

transitive verb

: to eliminate especially by blotting out, cutting out, or erasing

delete a passage in a manuscript

delete a computer file

The email was accidentally deleted.

deletable

di-ˈlē-tə-bəl 

dē-

adjective

an easily deletable photo

Synonyms of delete

• cancel
• erase
• remove
• censor

Examples of delete in a Sentence

Delete this name from the list.

When the movie was shown on TV all the swearwords had been deleted.

Recent Examples on the Web

In the past, some city employees communicated with each other each other through Google Chat messages that auto-deleted after a day. — Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 24 July 2026

Surveillance video, much of which was deleted because of the facility's archive practices, showed Feliz and Leon coming and going but no sign of Alayaih. — Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald, 24 July 2026

The broken embed for the reel is still in the story and the exact quote from the reel remains in the story along with the link to the original post that has since been deleted. — Byron Hurd, The Drive, 23 July 2026

But, then on Sunday, the FDA deleted the information from its website, explaining that on further review, the result was a false positive. — Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 21 July 2026

Word History

Etymology

Latin deletus, past participle of delēre to wipe out, destroy

First Known Use

1540, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing delete

• delete key

Rhymes for delete

• amit
• athlete
• backseat
• blackfeet
• broadsheet
• browbeat
• buckwheat
• compete
• compleat
• complete
• conceit
• concrete

Kids Definition

delete

verb

de·​lete di-ˈlēt 

deleted; deleting

: to eliminate especially by blotting out, cutting out, or erasing

delete a part of the story

delete a computer file

deletion

di-ˈlē-shən

noun