decvsdiceWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dec is a abbrev, dice is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dec” is an abbrev and “dice” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,469
“dec” frequency rank
#43,101
“dice” frequency rank
83570
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dec dice
Definition Abkürzung für den Monat december; Dezember der Würfel (zum Beispiel der Käsewürfel)

Letter map: dec vs dice

Shared letters muted; letters that set dec and dice apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. dec runs 3 letters (CVC) against dice's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
dec
4 ch
dice

Grammar separator: dec vs dice

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dec is anabbrev and diceanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83570, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dec is recorded at frequency rank #40,469, classified as anabbrev. dice is at rank #43,101, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 83570, this pair ranks #137,713 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dec vs dice

Shared letters: cde. Private to "dec": -. Private to "dice": i.

"dec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "dice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dice ← dcie · ddice · dicce · diec · idce

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dec" and "dice" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dec" is an abbrev and "dice" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "dec" or "dice" show up more?
"dec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,469 in our German list, against #43,101 for "dice". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "dec" and "dice". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dice" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,713 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dec" and "dice" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dice vs puzzles". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #137,713 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list