Delightful

How to spell delightful

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce delightful

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does delightful mean?

1. adjectiveGiving great pleasure or enjoyment; charming and pleasant.

Delightful in a sentence

• The hotel garden was a delightful place to read in the morning.

• She wrote a delightful thank-you note after the dinner party.

Where does delightful come from?

Language of origin: French

The word grows out of the verb 'delight', which English took from the Old French delitier, meaning 'to please greatly' or 'to charm'. That French verb came in turn from the Latin delectare, 'to allure' or 'to attract', an intensive form of delicere, built from de- (away) and lacere ('to entice'). The same Latin root feeds 'delicious' and 'delectable', all sharing the idea of being drawn pleasurably towards something. A curious spelling twist explains the silent 'gh': the original English form was spelled 'delite', but writers later inserted a 'gh' by false analogy with words like 'light' and 'night', and that decorative, soundless 'gh' has stayed ever since. Adding the suffix '-ful', meaning 'full of', produced 'delightful' by the late 1500s, and note the suffix keeps just one 'l'.

How the word is built

• delight (great pleasure, from Old French delit)
• -ful (full of)