7-letter words with D as the 1st letter and R as the 4th letter

The pattern is D _ _ R _ _ _, and its entries range from familiar words such as doorway and doorman to less common choices like diurnal. Collins includes all 87 matches, compared with 64 in ENABLE and 67 in NWL2023. Only 10 of the 87 fall among the most common English words, so expect plenty of tournament vocabulary.

The D _ _ R _ _ _ pattern at a glance

• 87 seven-letter matches start with D and have R in the fourth position.
• Degrees, diaries, and doorway are recognizable examples of the pattern.
• Only 10 matches rank among the top 25,000 English words by frequency.
• Collins has 87 matches; ENABLE has 64 and NWL2023 has 67.
• The most common final letter is S, appearing on 24 matches.

Which words fit the D _ _ R _ _ _ pattern?

Start with familiar options: degrees, diaries, doorway, doorman, and doormat all place R fourth. Dearest, degrade, deprive, and detract also fit, giving you several different letter combinations to test against a rack.

The endings narrow the search further. S closes 24 matches, while E closes 13 and T closes 12. That makes plural-looking forms such as decrees and diaries especially visible, but the pattern also includes singular words such as derrick and diorama.

There is a sharp contrast with the neighboring starting letter: 341 seven-letter words begin with S and put R fourth, versus 87 beginning with D. For a D clue, prioritize the smaller set rather than searching every word with R in the middle.

What are the highest-scoring matches?

Defroze leads the listed Scrabble scores at 20 points, followed by dyarchy at 19. Defrock and diarize each score 17, while diarchy and duarchy score 16. The average score across the matches is 11.1, so the top entries stand well above the typical result.

Defroze is the standout when you can use its high-value letters; dyarchy is close behind, though both are less familiar than doorway or diaries. Check your game's word list before relying on a Collins-only entry.