Capital & lowercase · click to copy

D in Cursive

Capital D and lowercase d in three cursive styles, plus two fancy variants people often compare them against. Click any letter to copy it, or scroll down for the stroke order if you are writing a cursive D by hand.

Capital D and lowercase d in three cursive styles and two fancy variants
StyleCapital DLowercase d
Cursive styles
Cursive Script
Bold Cursive
Old Style Script
Fancy variants (not cursive)
Double-Struck
Clean Monospace

More letters: A in cursive · B in cursive · C in cursive · all letters A–Z

Write Anything in Cursive

The table above is single letters. Type a word, a name, or a whole sentence here and get it in all five styles — click a row to copy it.

Cursive D Practice Sheet

A printable worksheet for handwriting the letter D: the stroke order at the top, then ruled lines with grey letters to trace and blank lines to finish on your own. For all 26 letters on one worksheet, use the cursive alphabet practice sheet.

Cursive D Stroke Order

Stroke order for a cursive capital D and a cursive lowercase d Two letterforms between dashed guide lines. The capital D is a stem from cap height to the baseline with one large bowl sweeping out to the right. The lowercase d is a round bowl at x-height followed by a tall stem that rises to the ascender line and comes back down to the baseline, exiting to the right. cap height x-height baseline capital D lowercase d
The filled dot is where the pen starts, the open circle where it lifts.

How to Write a Capital D in Cursive

  1. Start just below cap height with a small entry curl and pull the stem down to the baseline.
  2. Finish the stem with a short flick to the right.
  3. Return to the top of the stem and sweep one wide bowl out to the right.
  4. Bring the bowl back down and close it on the foot of the stem. Like C, the capital D does not join forward.

One bowl, not two β€” that is the whole difference between a cursive capital D and a capital B.

How to Write a Lowercase d in Cursive

  1. Start at x-height and draw the bowl first, travelling anticlockwise down to the baseline.
  2. Come back up the right side of the bowl and carry straight on up to the ascender line.
  3. Return down the same line to the baseline.
  4. Exit to the right along the baseline, so the next letter joins normally.

The bowl comes first and the stem second. Drawing the stem first is what produces a d that looks like an a with a stray line.

Why a Rushed Cursive d Looks Like “cl”

If the bowl does not close against the stem, the two halves read as separate letters: an open c followed by a tall l. It is the most common way a cursive d fails, and it is why could and cloud are so easily confused in handwriting. The fix is the join, not the shape β€” the bowl has to touch the stem at x-height.

Joining d to the Next Letter

The d exits on the baseline, so it connects cleanly into anything that follows. Entering it is the harder half: the bowl starts at x-height and travels anticlockwise, so after a high-exiting letter like b, o, v, or w you drop into the top of the bowl from above rather than rising into it from the baseline.

Common Mistakes with Cursive D

  • An unclosed bowl. Produces the “cl” misreading described above.
  • A short stem. If the stem stops near x-height the letter is an a, not a d.
  • Looping the stem. The cursive d stem is a straight up-and-down line; a loop makes it a very tall e.
  • Drawing the stem before the bowl. Correct order is bowl first, then stem.

Names Starting With D in Cursive

  • Daniel — π’Ÿπ’Άπ“ƒπ’Ύβ„―π“
  • Delilah — π’Ÿβ„―π“π’Ύπ“π’Άπ’½
  • Dylan — π’Ÿπ“Žπ“π’Άπ“ƒ
  • Dahlia — π’Ÿπ’Άπ’½π“π’Ύπ’Ά

Words Beginning With d in Cursive

  • dream — 𝒹𝓇ℯ𝒢𝓂
  • dance — 𝒹𝒢𝓃𝒸ℯ
  • drift — 𝒹𝓇𝒾𝒻𝓉

Want a whole word or sentence? Use the cursive letters generator, or the cursive name generator for names. To practise these strokes on paper, print a cursive practice sheet.

Cursive D FAQ

What is the cursive D?

The cursive D is the joined-up form of the letter D. The capital is a single stem with one wide bowl on its right and does not connect forward; the lowercase is a round bowl at x-height with a tall straight stem rising to the ascender line, exiting on the baseline. Online, “cursive D” also means the copy-and-paste characters (π’Ÿ and 𝒹) in the table above.

How do you write D in cursive?

In short: for the capital, stem down from cap height to the baseline, then one wide bowl out to the right and closed on the foot. For the lowercase, bowl first at x-height, then up to the ascender and back down, exiting along the baseline. The full breakdown and the diagram are above.

Why does my cursive d look like cl?

The bowl is not closing against the stem. When there is a gap at x-height the eye reads an open c and a separate tall l. Close the bowl where it meets the stem and the letter resolves immediately.

What is the difference between a cursive d and a cursive a?

Only the height of the stem. Both start with the same anticlockwise bowl at x-height; the a stops its stem at x-height, while the d carries it all the way to the ascender line. If your d is being read as an a, the stem is too short.

Can I copy and paste a cursive D?

Yes. Every D above is a Unicode character rather than an image, so clicking copies real text into any field that accepts typing β€” an Instagram bio, a Discord nickname, a document. No font needs to be installed.