dicevsdueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dice is a noun, due is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#10,194
“dice” frequency rank
#442
“due” frequency rank
10636
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dice due
Definition Gaming with one or more dice. Owed or owing.

Where the eye mixes dice and due

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dice
3 ch
due

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dice is /daɪs/ while due is /djuː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dice is recorded at frequency rank #10,194, classified as anoun, pronounced /daɪs/. due is at rank #442, tagged as anadj, pronounced /djuː/.

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 10636, this pair ranks #491,305 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dice vs due

Shared letters: de. Private to "dice": ci. Private to "due": u.

"dice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "due" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dicedcie · ddice · dicce · diec · idce

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dice" and "due" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dice" is a noun and "due" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dice" or "due"?
"due" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #442 in our English list, against #10,194 for "dice". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "due" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #491,305 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dice" and "due" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dice vs dimer". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list