5 Letter Words Starting With R

How to find a five-letter word that starts with an R

Looking for 5 letter words that start with R to solve a Wordle? The finder above already has R in the first green box; add your other clues.

A real example from our word list: the answer is RIDGE, and all you know is that it starts with R, which leaves 81 common words. Open with RAISE, the guess that splits this set most evenly.

Guess 1: RAISE R and E are green and I is yellow, and the rest are grey. That leaves 2 possible answers: rifle and ridge.

Guess 2: RIFLE R, I and E are green, and the rest are grey. That leaves 1 possible answer.

Guess 3: RIDGE All five letters are green. Solved in 3.

What comes after R?

In common words that start with R, the second letter is most often E (30%), O (26%) and A (19%). 98% have a vowel second, so if your consonant guesses keep missing, try A, E, I, O or U in the second spot.

About 5 letter words starting with R

R words almost always have a vowel second: radio, ready, river, round. The main exception is RH, which comes from Greek, as in rhyme and rhino. Because the second letter is so predictable, R words are often decided by their endings. Common ones include -CH (reach, ranch), -GH (rough) and -ER (river, rider). In Wordle, once R is green first, a guess that tests A, O and I in the second spot, plus common endings, narrows the list quickly.

R ranks 10th out of 26 as a first letter for 5 letter words.

Word families that start with R

R words almost always have a vowel second. RE words are the biggest group: realm, rebel, refer, reign, relax, renew, reply and reset. RO words include robot, rocky, roman, route and royal. RA words include radar, raise, range, rapid and ratio. RI and RU add rifle, rigid, risky, rival, rugby and rural. Because R is also one of the most common letters inside words, many R words contain a second R, like razor, rumor and rural. If you're solving a Wordle with R first, a guess that also tests R in the fourth or fifth spot can save a turn. See 5 letter words ending in R for those endings.

Vowels in 5 letter words starting with R

E is the most common vowel here, appearing in 57% of the common words, followed by A (38%) and O (35%). The least common is U (20%).

15% have just one vowel, like right, reply, rugby and rally. At the other end, radio, raise and route have three or more.

Nouns, verbs and adjectives

By main meaning (WordNet), there are 46 nouns, 17 verbs, 17 adjectives and 1 adverb.

Nouns include round, range and river. Verbs include reach, raise and refer. Adjectives include ready, royal and rural. Adverbs include right.

Best Wordle guesses that start with R

Top guesses, with the average number of the 81 common words each leaves: RAISE (6.6), RENAL (6.8), READY (7.2), REGAL (7.2) and RATIO (7.3).

38% repeat a letter, and 5 have a double letter, like rally, rabbi, rupee and ruddy.

Highest-scoring 5 letter words starting with R in Scrabble

Top common words: rocky (14), razor (14) and rhyme (13). All valid words: ritzy (17), rojak (16) and razed (15). 6 words reach 15 points or more.