Plural of Dice

search our site by Craig Shrives

The Plural of Dice

"Dice" is the plural form of "die." "Dice" is sometimes used to refer to a singular die.

If you want to play it safe:
Use dice if you are rolling two or more game pieces.
Use die, if you are only using one piece.

• It's a roll of the dice in the movie business.
• I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.

Are You Good at Plurals?

Here's a quick test.

Getting ready...

The Standard Rules for Forming the Plurals

The table below shows the standard rules for forming the plurals of nouns in English.

Type	Example of Type	Forming the Plural	Plural
Most Nouns	cat scythe	add s	cats scythes
Noun Ending s, sh, ch, x or z	bus dress	add es	buses dresses
Nouns ending [consonant] o	mango zero tomato	add either s or es (There are no rules for this - you have to know.)	mangoes or mangos zeros tomatoes
Nouns ending [vowel] o	patio ratio	add s	patios ratios
Nouns ending [consonant] y	story penny	change the y to an i and add es	stories pennies
Nouns ending [vowel] y	storey () donkey	add s	storeys donkeys
Mass nouns	rice flour	some nouns do not have a plural form	rice flour
Nouns ending f or fe	dwarf knife	ves and/or s (There are no rules - you have to know.)	dwarfs knives
Exceptions	goose louse	some nouns undergo a vowel or letters change	geese lice
More exceptions	die sheep	some nouns do not change at all	dice sheep

Read more about English spelling rules.

Why Is There Confusion over the Plural of Dice?

Confusion arises because people refer to "dice" in pairs so often that they don't realize it has a separate singular form.

Ready for the Test?