(An Unofficial) Python Reference Wiki

"clearly marked experimental"

The del statement

Delete names from a namespace, or attributes, members, slices from an object.

Syntax:

del target list

Deletion is recursively defined very similar to the way assignment is defined. Rather that spelling it out in full details, here are some hints.

Deletion of a target list recursively deletes each target, from left to right.

Deletion of a name removes the binding of that name from the local or global namespace, depending on whether the name occurs in a global statement in the same code block. If the name is unbound, a NameError exception will be raised.

It is illegal to delete a name from the local namespace if it occurs as a free variable in a nested block.

Deletion of attribute references, subscriptions and slicings is passed to the primary object involved; deletion of a slicing is in general equivalent to assignment of an empty slice of the right type (but even this is determined by the sliced object).