5 Letter Words That Start With Y

165 words in this list, every one checked against the YAWL dictionary.

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

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5 Letter Words 165

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.

This page lists every one of the 165 five letter words that start with Y, one of the smaller opening groups at this length. Type the letters you hold into the filter above and the list narrows instantly to the plays that fit your rack or your puzzle, and sort by score or alphabet whenever it helps.

Common five letter words starting with Y

The letter Y opens a small, characterful set. The most familiar everyday words lead the way: YACHT, YIELD, YOUNG, YOUTH, and YEAST. A cheerful group follows with YUMMY, YUCKY, and YODEL, and a few more, YEARN, YOKEL, YAHOO, YERBA, and YUCCA, round the list out. Because the group is compact, it is one you can almost learn in full, which is a real edge when a rack or a puzzle hands you a leading Y.

A Y opener Wordle set

For daily puzzle players a word starting with Y makes a useful test when the letter seems likely, because so few words qualify that a single guess narrows the field fast. YIELD, YEAST, YACHT, YEARN, YOUNG, YOUTH, and YUMMY are the answers most likely to come up. Enter the letters you have confirmed and rule out the ones you have missed, and this list plus the filter collapses the field to a very short set.

Scoring the best five letter words that start with Y

The opening Y is worth four points, so words on this list start ahead of most. YUCKY leads the board at 17 points, its two Y tiles and a K doing the work, and YECHY reaches 16. YECCH, YEUKY, and YOLKY all make 15. When a bonus square sits under the first tile, the four point Y alone gives these plays a strong head start.

How the count is made

Every figure on this page is recomputed from one pinned dictionary on each build, never written in by hand, and the list is a direct slice of that same file. That is why the count in the heading, the numbers in the copy, and the results from the filter can never disagree. If the total looks different from another site, this is the honest YAWL figure, and the dictionary page sets out the source list and its license. When you would rather rearrange a whole rack than browse by letter, send your letters to the five letter word finder.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many five letter words start with Y?
There are 165 five letter words that start with Y in this list, out of 12,036 five letter words in YAWL overall. Y is an uncommon opening letter, which makes this a compact set you can scan quickly. Every count here is generated from the dictionary at build time, so it always matches what the filter finds.
What five letter words starting with Y are good Wordle openers?
YIELD, YEAST, and YACHT are the useful Y openers, because they place common letters like I, E, L, D, A, S, T, and C. If you have already found a green or yellow Y, filter this list by your other placed letters to see only the words that still fit.
Which five letter word starting with Y scores the most in Scrabble?
YUCKY leads at 17 points on its two Y tiles and a K, with YECHY at 16. YECCH, YEUKY, and YOLKY reach 15. The opening Y is worth four points, so words that start with it carry a strong tile from the first square.
Why is a word I expected not on this list?
These pages are built from YAWL, a public domain list made for word games, which leaves out proper nouns, abbreviations, and hyphenated forms. Names starting with Y will not appear as a result. The [dictionary page](/dictionary/) publishes the exact list, its license, and its full counts so you can check any word against the source.