Word Lists · D + L
5 Letter Words With D and L
Every five-letter word that contains both D and L, in any position — answer-eligible words flagged in green, tap any word to play.
How Many 5-Letter Words Have D and L?
Two yellow tiles reading D and L leave 369 candidates standing, of which 83 can be the solution. DEALT is the sharpest way to cut that down, eliminating roughly 96.1%.
Expect roughly D in the 5th and L in the 4th if you have to pick blind, though at 42% the leading slot is far from a safe bet on its own.
D and L sit side by side in 78 words here — BADLY, BUILD, CHILD, COULD among them. If one of your yellow tiles is already placed, testing the square right next to it covers a real slice of the list in one guess.
73% of these words carry two or more vowels, so vowel coverage is largely settled — spend the remaining guesses on consonants.
Green-dotted words are answer-eligible — the everyday vocabulary the daily puzzle actually draws from — while hollow-dotted words are valid guesses you can play but that will never be the solution. Flip on Answers only to focus on the 83 words that can truly win the board.
Best Wordle Words With D and L
When D and L are both in play, the strongest guess keeps them and rules out as many remaining answers as possible. These three score highest across all 2296 possible answers:
- 01 DEALT — eliminates about 96.1% of remaining answers on average.
- 02 DELTA — eliminates about 95.5% of remaining answers on average.
- 03 LADEN — eliminates about 95.5% of remaining answers on average.
The Full List, Grouped by First Letter
Three opening letters carry half the list: D (99), L (81), S (26), out of 22 groups in total. Those chips are the fastest way in when square one is still unknown.
D/L Words That Have Been Wordle Answers
D/L words are regulars in the daily answer. 66 have already been used — most recently DEALT (#1914) on 2026-09-15, 5 days back — starting with MODEL in 2021. 17 answer words on this list have never come up.
| Puzzle | Date | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| #1914 | 2026-09-15 | DEALT |
| #1909 | 2026-09-10 | DRYLY |
| #1906 | 2026-09-07 | BLIND |
| #1755 | 2026-04-09 | LADEN |
| #1620 | 2025-11-25 | PLEAD |
| #1611 | 2025-11-16 | WIELD |
| #1609 | 2025-11-14 | LURID |
| #1587 | 2025-10-23 | DRILL |
| #1583 | 2025-10-19 | IDEAL |
| #1560 | 2025-09-26 | DALLY |
| #1538 | 2025-09-04 | BLEND |
| #1489 | 2025-07-17 | MODAL |
Never used as an answer
17 answer-eligible D/L words have never been the solution: ABLED, BLOOD, CLUED, DAILY, DILLY, DIMLY, DRAWL, DULLY, ELIDE, FLUID, GODLY, IDYLL, LIPID, OLDEN, PLIED, SADLY, SLIDE . Wordle avoided repeats entirely for its first 1,688 puzzles and only began reusing old answers in February 2026 — 24 times so far. An unused word is still the likelier bet, just no longer a certainty; see how repeats work for the full picture.
The other 286 words on this list are valid guesses the game accepts but never chooses as a solution. They still make useful probes for placing D and L, but when you guess to win, a green-dotted answer word is the smarter pick.
Where D and L Land in 5-Letter Words
The whole puzzle now is placement, so here is exactly where each letter tends to sit across the 369 words. Try the busiest square first.
| Position | Words with D here | Words with L here |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 99 | 81 |
| 2nd | 11 | 61 |
| 3rd | 53 | 104 |
| 4th | 60 | 105 |
| 5th | 154 | 38 |
Play a candidate that seats each letter in its busiest square and one of two good things happens: a tile turns green and you have locked a position, or it turns yellow again and you have eliminated the single most likely slot in one move.
How to Use These Words to Win Wordle
- Lead with the busiest square. D in slot 5 covers 154 of these 369 words and L in slot 4 covers 105 — try that shape before rarer placements.
- Favor distinct letters early. 293 of the 369 words here use five different letters and 76 repeat one.
- Then check for repeats. Repeated letters are live here: 28 entries carry D or L more than once, including DALLY, DILLY, DOLLY, DRILL. Worth checking before you rule a candidate out.
- Lean toward an unused word. Repeats stayed at zero until February 2026 and number just 24 in 1916 puzzles, so the 17 never-used D/L words above remain the stronger bet.
Full strategy lives in the how-to-play guide, and you can practice any time on the unlimited Wordle board.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many 5-letter words have D and L?
There are 369 valid five-letter words that contain both D and L in any position, and 83 of them can be a Wordle answer. Turn on "Answers only" above to narrow the list to answer-eligible words.
What is the best word to guess with D and L confirmed?
DEALT — it keeps both letters and still eliminates about 96.1% of the remaining answer pool. DEALT, DELTA, LADEN are the top three by that measure. See more best Wordle starting words.
Where do D and L usually sit in these words?
D most often lands in the 5th position (154 of 369 words) and L in the 4th (105). Neither is dominant, so treat it as a tiebreaker rather than a rule.
Which D/L words have been Wordle answers?
66 of them, out of 1916 puzzles so far. The most recent was DEALT (#1914) on 2026-09-15, and the first was MODEL on 2021-07-01. 17 answer-eligible words have never been used, including ABLED, BLOOD, CLUED, DAILY. Browse the full past Wordle answers archive.
Do these words work in hard mode?
Yes. Once D and L show as present you must reuse them, so this is exactly your hard-mode candidate set. 293 of the 369 words use five distinct letters and 76 repeat one, which matters because hard mode will not let you drop a confirmed letter to test elsewhere — see the how-to-play guide.
Are there 5-letter words with D and L next to each other?
78 of the 369 words place D and L in neighbouring squares: ACOLD, ADDLE, AFALD, AHOLD, ALDEA, ALDER, among others. The remaining 291 keep at least one square between them.
How many D/L words have no repeated letters?
293 of the 369. Those are the ones that reveal the most board per guess, so they are the better probes early on. The other 76 double up on some letter, and 73% of the full list carries two or more vowels. For a full clue-by-clue solve, send your board to the Wordle Solver.