D is the most predictable letter in the dictionary, and you can use that. About seven of every ten of the 10,149 words that start with D open with DE or DI, driven by workhorse prefixes like DE, DIS, and DIA. Know that one fact and half the guesswork disappears: when a puzzle reveals a leading D, DE and DI should be your first instincts. The filter above searches the full list as you type, so you can test a hunch in a second.
Two small doors
Only DE and DO make the two letter cut, so a lone D is harder to dump than most tiles. DO is the friendlier of the pair since it hooks into DOE, DOS, and DOT, while DE mostly earns its keep as a connector in tight corners of the board.
DIZZY and its loud cousins
The D tile itself is quiet, worth two points in both Scrabble and Words With Friends, but the words it starts are anything but. DIZZY packs 27 points into five tiles, one of the strongest short plays in the game. Stretch to seven tiles and DIZZILY and DRIZZLY each hit 29 before any bonus. On a Z free rack, DOZY, DAZE, and DITZ still beat most four letter alternatives, and DEWAX or DEOXY can rescue a stranded X.
Choosing a length
The family runs from those two letter outs up to DICHLORODIFLUOROMETHANES, a refrigerant compound that spans twenty four letters. The bulk sits in the middle: 1,555 eight letter words form the peak group, with 1,245 at seven letters for bingo seekers. Daily puzzle players get 457 five letter words that start with D, and steady openers like DREAM, DRINK, DRAPE, and DAILY cover the common patterns before you commit to a rarer guess.
All of the numbers on this page are recomputed from the dictionary on every build, so the counts you read always match the list you search.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many words start with D?
The list on this page contains 10,149 words that start with D, from a dictionary of 172,823 entries. Every count shown here is generated from that dictionary at build time, never typed in by hand.
Is DA a legal Scrabble word?
Not in this dictionary. ENABLE, the public domain list this site is built on, accepts only DE and DO as two letter D words. Some international lists allow DA, which is why other sites may disagree. See our dictionary page for exactly what is and is not included.
What is the highest scoring five letter D word?
DIZZY tops the group and scores 27 points, powered by two Z tiles and a Y, making it one of the best short plays in the entire game. DITZY and DOOZY follow at 18 each, and DEOXY and DEWAX are sneaky 16 point plays when the board is tight.
Why do so many D words look alike?
Roughly seven of every ten D words begin with DE or DI, thanks to English prefixes like DE, DIS, and DIA. That makes D unusually predictable: in a guessing game, DE and DI are by far the smartest second letters to try.