Delighted

How to spell delighted

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce delighted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does delighted mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling or showing great pleasure and satisfaction.
2. verbGave someone great pleasure or enjoyment.

Delighted in a sentence

• adjective

  She was delighted with the promotion she received this morning.

• verb

  The comedian delighted the audience for nearly two hours.

• adjective

  The guests seemed delighted by the food at the wedding reception.

• verb

  Her unexpected visit delighted the whole family.

Where does delighted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb delectare, meaning 'to charm, please, or attract', which was a frequentative form of delicere, 'to allure or entice'. It entered English in the 1200s through Old French deliter, and the early Middle English form was spelled 'delite', with no 'gh' at all. That earlier spelling makes good sense, because the word has nothing to do with light or brightness. The silent 'gh' was bolted on much later, around the 1500s, by writers who wrongly assumed the word belonged to the same family as 'light' and 'night'. That false analogy is precisely the spelling trap: the 'gh' is purely cosmetic and unrelated to the meaning, so it has to be remembered rather than reasoned out.

How the word is built

• de- (intensive, from Latin)
• light (from delectare: to please, with -gh- added by false analogy)
• -ed (past/adjectival suffix)