3-letter words starting with I

I is the twenty-third busiest opening letter at this length, ahead of only Z, Q and X. Nineteen of the 26 count as common English, from its and ice to ill and ink. No word here is unique to NWL2023: Collins holds all 26, which is six more than the North American list takes.

I openings in five numbers

• 26 three-letter words start with I, the twenty-third busiest opening letter.
• 19 of the 26 are common English, from its, ice and ill to ink and ivy.
• S and K close nine words between them; no other ending passes three.
• IVY, IFF and ICK tie on 9 points, with ICY and ICH behind on 8.
• Six words are Collins-only, and none is NWL-exclusive.

A small group of familiar words

Nineteen common words out of 26 is a 73 per cent share, second only to the B group among three-letter openings. That makes I an unusual letter: it opens few words, but the ones it opens are the ones you already use.

The list builds from short roots. IC- supplies ice, icy, ich and ick, IN- gives ink, inn and ins, and IS- adds ish, ism and iso, while ire, ilk, imp and ivy fill in the vowels.

Why the average sits under six

I scores one point and only the occasional Y or K lifts a word, so the group average is 5.3 against the 6.3 three-letter norm. ivy, iff and ick, all on 9, are the only words above 8.

Six of the 26 need Collins: ide, ios, ish, iso, ita and iwi. ENABLE leaves out seven of the list, so the practical pool for that word list is 19.

Learn these four before the rest