Die is the singular and dice is the plural. One die, two dice. That’s the traditional rule and it’s still the safe choice in edited writing. In everyday speech “a dice” is common, and the New Oxford Dictionary of English records dice as both singular and plural, so nobody will misunderstand you either way.
The traditional rule
You roll a die. You roll two dice. The odd spelling is a leftover from Middle English, where the plural was “dys” or “dyce” from the singular “dy,” itself from Old French “de” and ultimately Latin “datum,” meaning something given or played. The plural kept a hissing /s/ sound instead of the usual /z/, the way “pence” did, and the spelling followed the pronunciation.
If you’re writing rules or anything a tabletop crowd will read, use die for one and dice for more than one. It’s the form the audience expects and it costs nothing.
Why “a dice” is everywhere
Because a plural that sounds like a singular gets treated like one. Speakers reanalyzed it, and “a dice” is unremarkable in British speech.
Dictionaries record this. Merriam-Webster enters dice as a noun in its own right with the plural “dice,” and its example sentences treat it as a collective. The New Oxford Dictionary of English is blunter: “In modern standard English, the singular die (rather than dice) is uncommon. Dice is used for both the singular and the plural.” Wiktionary notes that many authorities still consider the singular incorrect, and that “die” is the form that dominates among tabletop gamers.
So this is a register choice, not an error. “A dice” is informal, “a die” is formal, and rulebooks and RPG communities are where it gets noticed.
The trap: die has other meanings
A die in manufacturing is a shaped tool that cuts or stamps metal, a sense that entered English in the 1690s. Its plural is dies, not dice. A stamping press holds dies, and so does a semiconductor die, the individual chip cut from a wafer. The verb die, meaning to stop living, comes from a Norse root rather than a Latin one and has no plural at all.
“Dices” is not a plural of anything. If you see it, it’s either a mistake or the third-person verb: he dices an onion.
What about “dice” as a verb?
To dice food is to cut it into small cubes. The verb comes straight from the gaming noun, because the pieces are cube-shaped, so both trace back through Old French “de” to Latin “datum”. Unrelated meaning in practice, shared ancestor on paper.
Quick reference
| You mean | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| One gaming cube (formal) | die | Roll a die and add 3 |
| One gaming cube (informal) | dice | Roll a dice |
| Two or more gaming cubes | dice | Roll two dice |
| One metal-shaping tool | die | The press holds a die |
| Two or more metal-shaping tools | dies | The shop stocks forty dies |
| Cutting food into cubes | dice (verb) | Dice the carrots |
The one place it really matters
Dice notation. In 1d20 or 3d6, the “d” stands for die and the number after it gives the sides on that one die, so 3d6 is three six-sided dice and each one is a d6. The singular keeps the shorthand readable, which is why the RPG world held onto it while general English drifted. See dice notation.
Alongside this one: the dots on dice are called pips and a standard die has six sides.
FAQ
Is it one dice or one die?
Traditionally one die, with dice as its plural. In casual speech, especially British English, “one dice” is extremely common, and the New Oxford Dictionary of English records dice as both singular and plural. Use die in formal or instructional writing, where the singular carries real information.
What is the plural of die?
It depends which die you mean. The gaming cube pluralizes as dice. The manufacturing tool that cuts or stamps metal pluralizes as dies. Both are spelled die in the singular, so the plural is the only place the two words separate. “Dices” is not a plural of either one.
Is “dices” ever correct?
Only as a verb. “She dices the onion” is the third-person singular of the verb to dice, meaning to cut into cubes. As a noun plural, dices is wrong in every context. The plural of the gaming die is dice, and the plural of the tool is dies.
Do dictionaries accept dice as singular?
Yes. The New Oxford Dictionary of English states that “in modern standard English, the singular die (rather than dice) is uncommon” and that dice covers both numbers. Merriam-Webster enters dice as a noun with the plural “dice” and uses it collectively in its examples. Wiktionary notes some authorities still object.