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### 7.3 Erasing Text

`DEL`
`BACKSPACE`

  Delete the character before point, or the region if it is active (`delete-backward-char`).

`Delete`

  Delete the character after point, or the region if it is active (`delete-forward-char`).

`C-d`

  Delete the character after point (`delete-char`).

`C-k`

  Kill to the end of the line (`kill-line`).

`M-d`

  Kill forward to the end of the next word (`kill-word`).

`M-DEL`

  Kill back to the beginning of the previous word (`backward-kill-word`).

The `DEL` (`delete-backward-char`) command removes the character before point, moving the cursor and the characters after it backwards. If point was at the beginning of a line, this deletes the preceding newline, joining this line to the previous one.

If, however, the region is active, `DEL` instead deletes the text in the region. See Mark, for a description of the region.

On most keyboards, `DEL` is labeled `BACKSPACE`, but we refer to it as `DEL` in this manual. (Do not confuse `DEL` with the `Delete` key; we will discuss `Delete` momentarily.) On some text terminals, Emacs may not recognize the `DEL` key properly. See DEL Does Not Delete, if you encounter this problem.

The `Delete` (`delete-forward-char`) command deletes in the opposite direction: it deletes the character after point, i.e., the character under the cursor. If point was at the end of a line, this joins the following line onto this one. Like `DEL`, it deletes the text in the region if the region is active (see Mark).

`C-d` (`delete-char`) deletes the character after point, similar to `Delete`, but regardless of whether the region is active.

See Deletion, for more detailed information about the above deletion commands.

`C-k` (`kill-line`) erases (kills) a line at a time. If you type `C-k` at the beginning or middle of a line, it kills all the text up to the end of the line. If you type `C-k` at the end of a line, it joins that line with the following line.

See Killing, for more information about `C-k` and related commands.

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