5 Letter Words That Start With R

419 words in this list, every one checked against the ENABLE dictionary.

Use these letters in the Word Finder to unscramble them into new words.

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5 Letter Words 419

Which of these words score the most in Scrabble?

The highest scoring words from this list, ranked by Scrabble letter values.

Browse Words by First Letter

Word Finders by Length

Holding a rack rather than browsing? Most games are won at four, six, and seven tiles, so start with the 4 Letter Word Finder, the 6 Letter Word Finder, or the 7 Letter Word Finder, then pick any other length below.

R is one of the friendliest letters to start a guess with, and this page gathers all 419 five letter words that begin with it, drawn from the 8,636 words of that length in the list. Whether you are cracking a daily puzzle or hunting a play on the board, type the tiles you hold into the filter and the matching R words surface at once.

R as an opening guess

RAISE earns its reputation. Its five letters are all different and four of them sit among the most common in five letter answers, so one guess rules a large part of the grid in or out. RATIO does similar work while checking the trickier O and I pairing, and RESIN, REACT, and ROUTE each spread across a different blend. If you like to lead with vowels, ROAST and RADIO get three of them onto the board early.

Scoring from a one point R

The R tile is worth a single point, so on a board the value comes from its neighbors. RITZY heads this group at 17 with its Z and Y, RAJAH and RAZED follow at 15, and RAZOR and REMIX land 14. When your rack looks unpromising, the points sort at the top of the page pushes these earners to the front for you.

The RE family and other patterns

More of these words open with RE than with any other pair, a deep well that includes REACH, READY, RELAX, REPLY, and RIVER. RA is the next largest through RANGE, RAPID, and RATIO, RO brings ROBIN, ROUND, and ROYAL, and RU adds RURAL and RUGBY. If you are hunting rhymes or building a themed list, the sort and filter controls let you group these families however you like, and tapping a word copies it straight into your game. Every count on this page is computed from the dictionary at build time, so the number in the heading and the length of the filtered list stay locked together, and they cannot drift apart between releases.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are good 5 letter words that start with R for a puzzle?
RAISE is one of the most useful openers anywhere: five different letters, four of them among the most common in five letter answers, so a single guess rules a lot of the grid in or out. RATIO, RESIN, ROUTE, and ROAST are all here too, and each tests a fresh set of tiles. Pick one, then let the feedback narrow your next line.
How many 5 letter words start with R?
The ENABLE list holds 419 five letter words beginning with R, out of 8,636 words of that length. Both numbers are counted from the dictionary when the site is built, so the heading always matches what the filter shows. Our /dictionary/ page explains the source list and why a word you expect might be missing.
What is the highest scoring 5 letter word starting with R in Scrabble?
RITZY leads at 17 points on the strength of its Z and Y. RAJAH and RAZED follow at 15, and RAZOR and REMIX land 14. The R tile itself is only a single point, so on this list the scoring comes entirely from the letters it carries.