Cancel vs. Delete — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Cancel and Delete
ADVERTISEMENT
Definitions
Cancel
To annul or invalidate
Cancel a credit card.
Delete
To cancel, strike out, or make impossible to be perceived
Deleted the expletives from the transcript with a marker.
Cancel
To decide or announce that (a planned or scheduled event) will not take place, especially with no intention of holding it at a later time
Cancel a picnic.
Cancel a soccer game.
Delete
To remove from a document or record
Deleted the names from the computer file.
Cancel
To cross out with lines or other markings.
ADVERTISEMENT
Delete
To remove (a file, for example) from a hard drive or other storage medium.
Cancel
To mark or perforate (a postage stamp or check, for example) to indicate that it may not be used again.
Delete
To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.
Cancel
To neutralize or equalize; offset
Today's decline in stock price canceled out yesterday's gain.
Delete
To defeat or dominate.
ADVERTISEMENT
Cancel
To remove (a common factor) from the numerator and denominator of a fractional expression.
Delete
To kill or murder.
Cancel
To remove (a common factor or term) from both sides of an equation or inequality.
Delete
(computing) A deletion.
Cancel
To neutralize one another; counterbalance
Two opposing forces that canceled out.
Delete
(recorded entertainment industry) A remainder of a music or video release.
Cancel
The act or an instance of canceling; a cancellation.
Delete
(uncountable) Delete
Cancel
(transitive) To cross out something with lines etc.
Delete
(computing) The delete character (U+007F or %7F).
Cancel
(transitive) To invalidate or annul something.
He cancelled his order on their website.
Delete
To blot out; to erase; to expunge; to dele; to omit.
I have, therefore, . . . inserted eleven stanzas which do not appear in Sir Walter Scott's version, and have deleted eight.
Cancel
(transitive) To mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it can't be reused.
This machine cancels the letters that have a valid zip code.
Delete
Remove or make invisible;
Please delete my name from your list
Cancel
(transitive) To offset or equalize something.
The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.
Delete
Wipe out magnetically recorded information
Cancel
To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.
Delete
Cut or eliminate;
She edited the juiciest scenes
Cancel
To stop production of a programme.
Cancel
To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
Cancel
(obsolete) To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.
Cancel
(slang) To kill.
Cancel
To cease to provide financial or moral support to (someone deemed unacceptable). Compare cancel culture.
Cancel
A cancellation (US); (nonstandard in some kinds of English).
Cancel
A control message posted to Usenet that serves to cancel a previously posted message.
Cancel
(obsolete) An enclosure; a boundary; a limit.
Cancel
(printing) The suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.
Cancel
(printing) The page thus suppressed.
Cancel
(printing) The page that replaces it.
Cancel
To inclose or surround, as with a railing, or with latticework.
A little obscure place canceled in with iron work is the pillar or stump at which . . . our Savior was scourged.
Cancel
To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.
Cancel
To cross and deface, as the lines of a writing, or as a word or figure; to mark out by a cross line; to blot out or obliterate.
A deed may be avoided by delivering it up to be cancelled; that is, to have lines drawn over it in the form of latticework or cancelli; though the phrase is now used figuratively for any manner of obliterating or defacing it.
Cancel
To annul or destroy; to revoke or recall.
The indentures were canceled.
He was unwilling to cancel the interest created through former secret services, by being refractory on this occasion.
Cancel
To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
Cancel
An inclosure; a boundary; a limit.
A prison is but a retirement, and opportunity of serious thoughts, to a person whose spirit . . . desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body.
Cancel
The suppression or striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.
Cancel
A notation cancelling a previous sharp or flat
Cancel
Postpone indefinitely or annul something that was scheduled;
Call off the engagement
Cancel the dinner party
Cancel
Make up for;
His skills offset his opponent's superior strength
Cancel
Declare null and void; make ineffective;
Cancel the election results
Strike down a law
Cancel
Remove or make invisible;
Please delete my name from your list
Cancel
Of cheques or tickets
