Have illuminating words infiltrated your vocabulary? When you indulge in a game of Scrabble or Words with Friends, impress your friends with an influx of words that start with the letter I. In each idle instant, invite some I-words into your ideation by including them in your iambic verse. I is the ninth letter of the English alphabet, but it introduces some inventive and inspiring idioms! So, if you insist on improving your vocabulary, inspect this index for important inroads.
We’ve created this list of words for you, organized by the number of letters in each word. Many of these words have more than one meaning. For simplicity, we’ve only listed one definition for each word. Keep in mind, this word list doesn’t contain every single English word that starts with I; however, it’s a useful introduction to this very special letter.
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iguana – Noun | A large American lizard of the family Iguanidae
illite – Noun | Clay minerals with the crystal structure of muscovite
immure – Verb | To imprison
impala – Noun | A medium-sized African antelope, Aepyceros melampus
impark – Verb | To confine in a park
impish – Adjective | Mischievous
infamy – Noun | Evil or scandalous reputation
5-Letter Words
idler – Noun | A lazy person
idyll – Noun | A poem dealing with pastoral scenes
igloo – Noun | Dome-like structures built by Inuit, Inupiat, and Yupik peoples (also spelled iglu)
ihram – Noun | Plain clothing worn by Muslims on a ceremonial pilgrimage to Mecca
ileum – Noun | The lowest part of the small intestine
ilium – Noun | The uppermost, largest bones on either side of the pelvis
imago – Noun | A sexually mature, winged insect
imbue – Verb | To endow
imide – Noun | A compound derived from ammonia
inane – Adjective | Silly, insignificant
incus – Noun | The centermost bone in a mammal’s ear
infix – Verb | To fasten or insert
ingot – Noun | A mold for casting metal
inker – Noun | A tattoo artist
inure – Verb | To habituate something undesirable
iroko- Noun | An African hardwood of thegenus Chlorophora
islet – Noun | A small island
istle – Noun | A strong tropical fiber used for weaving
4-Letter Words
iamb – Noun | A metrical foot with one unstressed and then one stressed syllable
ibex – Noun | Wild goats of the genus Capra
ibis – Noun | Wading birds of the family Threskiornithidae
ilex – Noun | Holly of the family Ilex
iota – Noun | The ninth letter of the Greek alphabet
inby – Adverb | In an inward direction (also spelled inbye)
ired – Verb | Angered
ixia – Noun | African plants of the family Iridaceae
izar – Noun | Traditional outer garment worn by Muslim women
3-Letter Words
icy – Adjective | Covered with ice
imp – Noun | A mischievous child
ink – Noun | Colored liquid used for writing and printing
iwi – Noun | A Maori tribe
2-Letter Words
id -Noun | A term used in psychoanalysis to describe an unconscious part of the psyche
if – Conjunction | Assuming that
in – Preposition | A function word to indicate position within limits
is – Verb | Present tense third-person singular of “be”
By looking at this list, you may be able to identify some common prefixes. Words that start with “immun-” often have something to do with immunity or safety. Words beginning with “inter-” involve the relationship between or among different things. Understanding these linguistic patterns can help you intuit what a word means, even when you don’t have a dictionary handy.
Use words that start with the letter I to indoctrinate your idols with intelligent ideas. Inspire others with incredible idylls. In the event that you internalize this list, no word finder, word game, or crossword puzzle will infuriate you. Instead, you’ll be inoculating yourself against ineptitude and issuing influential I-words—from is to immaterialities.
I’m an award-winning playwright with a penchant for wordplay. After earning a perfect score on the Writing SAT, I worked my way through Brown University by moonlighting as a Kaplan Test Prep tutor. I received a BA with honors in Literary Arts (Playwriting)—which gave me the opportunity to study under Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel. In my previous roles as new media producer with Rosetta Stone, director of marketing for global ventures with The Juilliard School, and vice president of digital strategy with Up & Coming Media, I helped develop the voice for international brands. From my home office in Maui, Hawaii, I currently work on freelance and ghostwriting projects.