DEL
Abbreviation with 5 meanings
| Stands for | Indira Gandhi International Airport |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 5 |
| Categories | Transportation & Travel, Geography & Places, Technology & Computing, Writing & Everyday |
| Also written | Del, Del., del. |
DEL has five meanings. The most common are Indira Gandhi International Airport (airport code) and Delaware (US state traditional); it can also stand for Delete key, Delegate and Delineavit (drew it).
Meanings of DEL at a glance
| # | DEL stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indira Gandhi International Airport | Transportation & Travel › Airport Code |
| 2 | Delaware | Geography & Places › US State Traditional |
| 3 | Delete key | Technology & Computing › Computer |
| 4 | Delegate | Writing & Everyday › Title and Honorific |
| 5 | Delineavit (drew it) | Writing & Everyday › Latin |
1. Indira Gandhi International Airport
Transportation & Travel · Airport Code Abbreviations
India's busiest airport and a hub of Air India and IndiGo, located about 16 kilometers southwest of central New Delhi. It ranks among the busiest airports in the world by passengers.
Example: The Airport Express metro from DEL reaches New Delhi station in about 20 minutes.
ICAO code VIDP. Named for Indira Gandhi, India's prime minister who was assassinated in 1984. Terminal 3 opened in 2010 ahead of the Commonwealth Games. Winter fog regularly causes widespread delays, and the airport has systems approved for very low visibility landings.
2. Delaware (Del.)
Geography & Places · US State Traditional Abbreviations
Delaware's traditional abbreviation, used by AP in datelines (DOVER, Del.), party labels (D-Del.) and by lawyers citing Delaware statutes and the Court of Chancery (Del. Ch.). Because so many corporations are organized under Delaware law, the short form appears constantly in legal opinions and securities filings.
Example: WILMINGTON, Del. — The chancellor ruled that the merger vote could proceed as scheduled.
Del. is also a common abbreviation for delegate and for the Delete key, so context matters in political or technical text. Delaware's postal code DE doubles as Germany's ISO country code. AP spells the state name out in running copy.
3. Delete key (Del)
Technology & Computing · Computer Abbreviations
Key that removes the character to the right of the cursor or deletes selected files and objects. On most desktop PCs, pressing Del during startup also opens the BIOS or UEFI setup screen.
Example: Tap Del repeatedly while the PC boots to get into the firmware settings.
On a PC, Backspace deletes to the left and Delete to the right. Apple keyboards label their backspace key "delete", and Mac laptops use Fn+Delete for a forward delete. In Windows, Shift+Del deletes a file permanently instead of sending it to the Recycle Bin. ASCII code 127 is the DEL control character, originally used to punch out mistakes on paper tape.
4. Delegate (Del.)
Writing & Everyday · Title and Honorific Abbreviations
Used for members of a legislature called the House of Delegates, as in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, and for the nonvoting delegates who represent US territories and the District of Columbia in Congress.
Example: Del. Ortega has sponsored the bill in the House of Delegates for three consecutive sessions.
Congress has five nonvoting delegates, from the District of Columbia, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, plus a resident commissioner for Puerto Rico. News outlets abbreviate the title as Del. before a name, as with Rep. and Sen. The same abbreviation also stood for Delaware in older state-abbreviation styles.
5. Delineavit (drew it) (del.)
Writing & Everyday · Latin Abbreviations
Identifies the draftsman who made the drawing from which a print, map or scientific plate was engraved. Natural-history illustrations and architectural plates often credit the artist with del. and the engraver with sc.
Example: Each botanical plate credits "F. Bauer del." beside the engraver's name in the lower margin.
Also written delin. or delt. In illustrated books, the del. credit lets historians separate the observer who recorded a specimen or building from the craftsman who translated the drawing into metal. The same letters are unrelated to the Delete key, to Del. for Delaware or to Del. for a legislative delegate.
Related abbreviations
More airport code abbreviations
- CUN – Cancún International Airport
- CVG – Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
- DAL – Dallas Love Field
- DCA – Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
- DEN – Denver International Airport
- DFW – Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
- DOH – Hamad International Airport
- DPS – I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport
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