Title: delete_term_meta
Published: December 9, 2015
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# delete_term_meta( int $term_id, string $meta_key, mixed $meta_value ): bool

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#description)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Removes metadata matching criteria from a term.

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

For historical reasons both the meta key and the meta value are expected to be “
slashed” (slashes escaped) on input.

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$term_id`intrequired

Term ID.

`$meta_key`stringrequired

Metadata name.

`$meta_value`mixedoptional

Metadata value. If provided, rows will only be removed that match the value.
 Must
be serializable if non-scalar. Default empty.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 bool True on success, false on failure.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    function delete_term_meta( $term_id, $meta_key, $meta_value = '' ) {
    	return delete_metadata( 'term', $term_id, $meta_key, $meta_value );
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/taxonomy.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/taxonomy.php#L1425)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-includes/taxonomy.php#L1425-L1427)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [delete_metadata()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_metadata/)`wp-includes/meta.php` |

Deletes metadata for the specified object.

  |

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/delete_term_meta/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [4.4.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/4.4.0/) | Introduced. |

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