Words Ending With IST
100 wordsThe suffix -IST marks the doer, the believer, the practitioner. From artists to scientists, this ending transforms concepts into the people who embody them. Here you'll find over a thousand words that name specialists, advocates, and experts across every field imaginable.
4-letter words
45-letter words
76-letter words
117-letter words
158-letter words
129-letter words
2010-letter words
911-letter words
812-letter words
613-letter words
514-letter words
215-letter words
1Pattern Guide
Insights and recommendations for these words.
Words ending in -IST offer some of the longest playable words in competitive word games, making them essential territory for serious players.
Vocabulary & Language
Linguistic patterns and usage statistics
The -IST suffix derives from Greek -istes through Latin and French, meaning 'one who practices or is concerned with.' It attaches to nouns (art → artist), verbs (tour → tourist), and other roots to create agent nouns. This productive suffix continues generating new words today—think 'podcaster' becoming 'podcastist' in some circles, or 'influencer' occasionally appearing as 'influencist.'
Total Words
1,307
0.4% of dictionary
Avg Length
10.6 letters
3.9 syllables
Top Scrabble
PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGIST
37 points
Longest Word
ELECTROPHYSIOLOGIST
19 letters
Parts of Speech
With 89% nouns, this suffix behaves almost exclusively as an agent noun marker. The average length of 10.6 letters reflects how -IST typically attaches to already substantial root words, often creating compound specialists like psychophysiologist.
French dominates the etymology of -IST words, reflecting the Norman influence on English professional and intellectual vocabulary. Many terms traveled through Middle French before landing in English, picking up refinements along the way. The chain from CIST—tracing back through Latin and Ancient Greek to Proto-Indo-European—shows how some -IST words predate the suffix's productive use, representing ancient container words that merely happen to end in these letters.
Word Games
High-value words for board games
Medium (5-7)
of or relating to or characteristic of a czar
Long (8+)
a psychologist trained in psychophysics
Short (2-4)
Medium (5-7)
of or relating to or characteristic of a czar
Long (8+)
a psychologist trained in psychophysics
JUJUIST demonstrates the scoring gap between games: 21 points in Scrabble versus 27 in Words With Friends, thanks to WWF's higher J value. CZARIST offers solid returns in both games, leveraging the Z without requiring a blank tile for an impossible letter. For longer plays, PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGIST tops both charts, but the 37-point Scrabble score versus 38 in WWF shows how differently the games weight these monster words.
Wordle
5-letter words for daily puzzles
Good Starters (E, A, R, S, T)
WRIST and WAIST make excellent opening guesses, each placing common consonants (W, R, S, T) alongside different vowels. HEIST offers the strategic H while testing E and I positions.
Length Extremes
Longest and shortest valid words
Longest
The absence of 2-3 letter -IST words reflects the suffix's grammatical role—you need a meaningful root before you can name its practitioner. Even FIST and GIST aren't true -IST suffixed words; they're complete roots where the letters happen to align.
Hidden Gems
Rare but valid words to surprise opponents
an acrobat who performs in the air (as on a rope or trapeze)
a physician skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of allergies
of or pertaining to the doctrine of animism
someone who flies a balloon
AERIALIST—an acrobat who performs in the air on ropes or trapeze—delivers both visual drama and Scrabble utility. Its mix of common vowels and the double-I pattern makes it surprisingly playable when you're holding too many vowels. The word also connects to a rich circus vocabulary that rarely appears in everyday speech.
Popular crossword answers
Words frequently used in crossword puzzles with common clues.