delete
Americanverb (used with object)
-
deletes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
deleted,
past participle, past
-
deleting
present participle
verb
Usage
What is basic definition of delete? Delete means to remove or destroy something, specifically something that is written, printed, or stored on a computer. Before the Internet, delete often referred to removing something from drafts of books, letters, newspapers, and other materials. Today, delete often refers to either hitting a key on a keyboard that erases text or telling a computer to get rid of a file, as by placing a document in the trash can. A person may also want to delete (deactivate) a social media account.
- Real-life examples: When you’re writing an essay, you might delete some paragraphs and add others. To better use data storage space, you might delete all of your junk email or delete a bunch of photos from your smartphone.
- Used in a sentence: The reporter deleted the final two paragraphs of the story in order to make it shorter.
Synonym Usage
See cancel.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
deletesimple
-
deletessimple
-
have deletedperfect
-
has deletedperfect
-
am deletingprogressive
-
are deletingprogressive
-
is deletingprogressive
-
have been deletingperfect progressive
-
has been deletingperfect progressive
Past
-
deletedsimple
-
had deletedperfect
-
was deletingprogressive
-
were deletingprogressive
-
had been deletingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of delete
1485–95; < Latin dēlētus (past participle of dēlēre to destroy), equivalent to dēl- destroy + -ē- thematic vowel + -tus past participle suffix
Explanation
The author looked at the computer screen in horror. With one keystroke she had deleted her entire manuscript. Delete means to erase. Delete has its roots in Latin and was first used to mean destroy. In modern usage, delete means to remove completely. Delete used in writing means to edit by removing, often done by drawing a line through the text to be deleted . This process is also called “blue-penciling,” due to the use of the blue colored pencil that some editors use.
Vocabulary lists containing delete
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 7–11
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Computer Science and Technology - Introductory
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Fear and Loathing in Cleveland: Trump's RNC Acceptance Speech
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Instead of firing Attiah, the newspaper could have conducted an investigation and interview with the columnist to understand her posts and could have asked her to delete the comments, Miller Espinosa said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Got to write the sentence and delete it.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
Relatives and acquaintances called my parents, urging them to make me delete my videos or face the consequences.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
On June 15, Daniel Haido, an associate producer of “Fortitude,” dropped off an unencrypted copy of the movie for Netflix to view and instructed the staff to delete the files after the screening.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
I type, delete, type, and delete over and over again.
From "Pride" by Ibi Zoboi
OpenAI automatically deletes temporary conversations from servers within 30 days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Claude-powered AI coding agent deletes entire company database in 9 seconds.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 28, 2026
He said he deletes the entries of ICE agents who have quit.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2026
Rivas’ office said that’s due in part to prevent people from impersonating elected officials: If a user deletes their X account, the username can be claimed by someone else 30 days later.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2025
Ben deletes the title and retypes: "Differences: America's Far Past and Recent Past" “Specifics?” asks Ben.
From "Towers Falling" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
The students stopped the recording, deleted the video and gave the device to a teacher, the Tracy Police Department said in a statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
When I deleted the app, I felt a wave of relief.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026
To investigate the receptor's role more closely, Andreasson's laboratory engineered mice whose EP2 gene could be deleted at a time chosen by the scientists, specifically in tissue-resident macrophages.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
Kumar, the BJP social-media worker in Uttar Pradesh, said that when women apologized on social media, he deleted his tweets about them and no further action was pursued.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
“She must’ve found them on Dad’s camera and downloaded them before I deleted them all.”
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
The report claims that when DseWiki's editors started deleting pages, the AI agents shared code designed to retrieve them.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Now he’s gone dark, deleting his X.com account after exchanging volleys with a radio reporter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
"After deleting Mitch, we examined, every few hours, the effect that had on more than 100 substances taking part in metabolism in human cells," Chourasia explains.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 3, 2026
On Wednesday night, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported being told that “the aerial image of the crowds from last week’s his rally enraged him so much that officials ended up deleting them.”
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
“You don’t even know. Yesterday Ainyr spent two hours deleting all the photos of him off her phone. Two hours! You know how many photos that is? They only went out a week!”
From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
