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wp term delete

Overview

Permanently remove one or more taxonomy terms from WordPress. Posts assigned to the deleted term will have that term removed from their assignments.

What It Does​

wp term delete calls wp_delete_term() for each specified term ID. Posts are not deleted — they simply lose the term assignment.

Syntax​

wp term delete <taxonomy> <term-id>...

Basic Usage​

Delete a category by ID​

wp term delete category 12

Delete multiple terms​

wp term delete post_tag 33 34 35

Real-World Scenarios​

Scenario 1: Delete all empty categories​

for id in $(wp term list category --hide_empty=false --field=term_id); do
  COUNT=$(wp term get category "$id" --field=count)
  if [[ "$COUNT" -eq 0 ]]; then
    wp term delete category "$id"
    echo "Deleted empty category ID $id"
  fi
done

Scenario 2: Delete unused WooCommerce tags after product cleanup​

for id in $(wp term list product_tag --hide_empty=false --field=term_id); do
  COUNT=$(wp term get product_tag "$id" --field=count)
  if [[ "$COUNT" -eq 0 ]]; then
    wp term delete product_tag "$id"
  fi
done

Best Practices​

Content impact

Deleting a term unlinks it from all posts. Posts remain, but the term assignment is removed. If "Uncategorized" is the default category, WordPress prevents its deletion.

  1. Check post count first — wp term get TAXONOMY ID --field=count before deleting.
  2. Reassign posts to another term before deleting if you want content to remain categorized.

Quick Reference​

wp term delete <taxonomy> <id>           # Delete one term
wp term delete <taxonomy> 12 15 22      # Delete multiple
wp term list <taxonomy> --format=table  # List before deleting

Next Steps​