In this paper, we propose a new lifetime model as a discrete version of the continuous weighted exponential distribution which is called discrete weighted exponential distribution (DWED). This model is a generalization of the discrete exponential distribution which is originally introduced by Chakraborty (2015). We present various statistical indices/properties of this distribution including reliability indices, moment generating function, probability generating function, survival and hazard rate functions, index of dispersion, and stress-strength parameter. We first present a numerical method to compute the maximum likelihood estimations (MLEs) of the models parameters, and then conduct a simulation study to further analyze these estimations. The advantages of the DWED are shown in practice by applying it on two real world applications and compare it with some other well-known lifetime distributions.