Verbs That Start With Every Letter
Here are verbs that start with every letter from A to Z: 3,970 in all, with examples for each letter and a full page for every letter that has enough of them.
This index covers 3,970 verbs across the alphabet. S leads comfortably on 546 verbs, ahead of R at 393, C at 363 and D at 344. Those big letters are full of prefixes such as re-, con- and dis-, so they are perfect for spelling lessons.
The thin end is just as useful to know. X has no verbs here at all, Z has four, Y has eight and K has 17. If you are playing an action-word alphabet game, plan ahead for those letters with zoom, yawn and kick.
- Verbs listed
- 3,970
- Most common first letter
- S
- Letters with none
- X
Verbs by letter
| Letter | How many | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| A | 205 | are, am, ask, answer, add |
| B | 212 | be, believe, become, buy, bring |
| C | 363 | can, come, care, change, call |
| D | 344 | do, deal, design, drive, die |
| E | 215 | eat, enjoy, except, expect, explain |
| F | 157 | find, found, feel, fight, follow |
| G | 95 | get, go, give, getting, guess |
| H | 116 | have, help, hope, hit, hear |
| I | 172 | issue, include, increase, imagine, interview |
| J | 34 | join, judge, jump, joining, jimmy |
| K | 17 | know, keep, kick, kiss, knock |
| L | 112 | like, love, look, let, live |
| M | 141 | make, mean, move, meet, march |
| N | 43 | need, note, names, notice, nick |
| O | 112 | open, offer, operate, occur, obtain |
| P | 260 | please, put, play, pay, plan |
| Q | 22 | quit, quote, qualify, qualifying, query |
| R | 393 | read, run, remember, report, return |
| S | 546 | see, say, show, set, start |
| T | 168 | think, take, tell, try, thank |
| U | 73 | use, using, understand, update, upset |
| V | 44 | vote, visit, visiting, volunteer, venture |
| W | 114 | want, work, win, wait, watch |
| X | 0 | No common verbs start with X |
| Y | 8 | yield, yell, yelp, yawn, yearn |
| Z | 4 | zip, zoom, zap, zigzag |
Related lists
Questions people ask
Which letter do the most verbs start with?
S, with 546 on this site's list.
Are there verbs for every letter?
Not in this list. No common verbs start with X.
Source: the ENABLE word list (a public-domain dictionary used for word games), ranked by how often each word appears in English text (the open wordfreq project), with short meanings from Princeton WordNet.