The D is one of only two letters worth two points (the other is the G), and this indicates its status as not being quite as common as the one-point consonants.
Its main use for bonuses is for forming past tenses and past participles of verbs – PLANTED, SPRAYED, INFLATED, REMAINED and thousands more. There are also lots of words with DE- at the beginning – DELOUSE, DEVELOP, DENATURE and so on. This does show the main weakness of the D which is that it needs an E to be most effective, although DIS- can also be a handy prefix, with words like DISPLAY, DISCORD, DISTRACT.
There are eight two-letter words with D:
AD an advertisement
ED an editor
ID term used in psychoanalysis
OD hypothetical force or form of energy
DA a Burmese knife
DE of (found in place-names such as Ashby de la Zouch)
DI plural of deus, a god
DO
And here are some useful three- and four-letter words with D:
DSO, DZO, DZHO all alternative spellings of ZO
DOJO a room where martial arts are practised
JEDI a person who embraces the philosophy of the Jedi from the Star Wars films
DEXY a dextroamphetamine pill
DIXI interjection meaning “I have spoken”
DIXY a large pot for water
DOXY a religious opinion or doctrine
Not forgetting the ultra-useful QAID (a chief) and
QADI (a Muslim judge).
By Barry Grossman
Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.
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