Backspace vs Delete

Backspace is the keyboard key that originally pushed the typewriter carriage one position backwards, and in modern computer displays moves the cursor one position backwards, deletes the preceding character, and shifts back the text after it by one position.

The delete key, known less ambiguously as forward delete, Del, or ⌦, performs a function when struck on a computer keyboard during text or command editing which discards the character ahead of the cursor's position, moving all following characters one position "back" towards the freed place.

On many notebook computer keyboards the key labeled Delete (sometimes Delete and Backspace are printed on the same key) serves the same purpose as a Backspace key. Othertimes, the Delete Key is in its original IBM notebook position of above and to the right of the Backspace key. Many laptops, to add keys on a non-standard size keyboard add rows of smaller keys above the Function Key line. On this line, the Delete Key is often the third key in from the right. On Apple Inc.'s line of laptops (notably the MacBook and MacBook Pro), the function of the delete key can be achieved by pressing the Fn key and the delete/backspace key.