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deli

noun

Simple meaning

A shop selling ready-to-eat food products.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dehlee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdɛli

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. informal

    A shop selling ready-to-eat food products

  2. informal

    A shop that sells cooked or prepared food ready for serving.

  3. informal

    Food sold at a delicatessen.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A shop selling ready-to-eat food products

Used this way, deli is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Casual
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Playful
Usage feel
Casual and conversational

Where it naturally appears

  • Everyday conversation
  • Social media/informal writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use deli

  • “I picked up a sandwich from the deli for lunch.”

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.