Relegate means to push something down or away, often out of favour; delegate means to hand a task or responsibility to someone else. A relegated team drops to a lower division; a delegated task is passed to a colleague to handle.
The core difference
Relegate is about demoting or banishing something to a lesser position, while delegate is about assigning a task or authority to someone else.
- relegate — to send down, banish, or remove to a lesser place: the report was relegated to a footnote.
- delegate — to hand off a task or responsibility, usually to someone junior: she delegated the filing to the new intern so she could focus on the budget.
How to tell them apart
The two words look alike because both come from Latin roots involving sending, but they send things in different directions. Relegate pushes something down or away, out of sight or out of importance. Delegate passes something across, to another person who takes it on.
A useful check: if the thing being moved is a task, job, or authority, and it is being handed to a person, that is delegating. If the thing being moved is a person, a team, or an idea, and it is being pushed to a lower or lesser position, that is relegating. Note also that delegate is a noun as well as a verb — a delegate is the person chosen to represent others at a meeting.
