5-letter words with D as the 1st letter and D as the 5th letter

The pattern D???D is mostly past-tense verbs. Thirty of the 37 words finish in -ED, and the remaining seven include DREAD, DROID and DRUID. Only three have been Wordle answers, so it is a narrow pattern for solvers, but a very predictable one.

D???D at a glance

• 37 words match; Collins accepts 36, NWL2023 accepts 30 and ENABLE 28.
• 30 end in -ED; the other 7 are DREAD, DRUID, DRYAD, DEBUD, DECAD, DORAD and DROID.
• Wordle answers: DRIED, DREAD and DRUID.
• 6 are common, and the average score is 9.
• DAZED and DOZED lead at 16 points.

Why are so many of them past tense?

Two D tiles bracket a four-letter stem, so verbs fit naturally: DATED, DARED, DINED, DIVED and DOTED. The ED ending alone accounts for 81 percent of the pattern. If you hold D, E and D with two spare consonants, you are one tile away from a past-tense word.

The fourth letter is E in 30 words, A in 4, I in 2 and U in 1. Five more words, DREAD, DRIED, DROID, DRUID and DRYAD, put an R in second place and share the DR- opening.

Which D???D words show up in Wordle?

DRIED, DREAD and DRUID are the three answers, and all three open with DR-. That narrows a solver to the D and R in the first two squares, plus a D in the fifth.

Six words in the group are common: DATED, DRIED, DREAD, DARED, DROID and DAZED. Everything else is an odd spelling that will rarely appear.

How do these words score?

Each D is worth 2, so every word starts with 4 points. DAZED and DOZED reach 16 on a Z, DOXED reaches 14 on an X, and DUKED, DIKED and DEKED reach 11 on a K. DIVED and DRYAD score 10.

Collins accepts 36 of the 37, so check your game's word list before playing DEBUD, DECAD or DORAD.

For the safe plays, stay with DATED, DARED, DINED and DIVED. They are plain verbs, and every list takes them.