Dido or ditto?
dido is a noun meaning “A fuss, a row”; ditto is a noun meaning “That which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) ditto is about 5.4 times as common as dido.
What is the difference between dido and ditto?
| dido | ditto | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, adverb, verb, interjection |
| Meaning | A shrewd trick; an antic; a caper | That which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise The ditto mark, 〃; a symbol, represented by two apostrophes, inverted commas, or quotation marks (" "), indicating that the item preceding is to be repeated As said before, likewise |
| Example | none recorded | Please run off twenty-four dittos of this assignment for my students |
| Forms | didos, didoes | dittos, dittoes |
| Pronunciation | /ˈdaɪdəʊ/ | /ˈdɪtəʊ/ /ˈdɪtoʊ/ [ˈdɪɾoʊ] |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 2.4 times per million words |
Sources: dido and ditto in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of dido and ditto
dido
- 1
slangA fuss, a row
- 2
Initialism of drive-in drive-out
- 3
A shrewd trick; an antic; a caper
ditto
- 1
That which was stated before, the aforesaid, the above, the same, likewise
- 2
As said before, likewise
- 3
To repeat the aforesaid, the earlier action etc
- 4
Used as an expression of agreement with what another person has said, or to indicate that what they have said equally applies to the person being addressed
I'm really busy today! –Ditto!
- 5
The ditto mark, 〃; a symbol, represented by two apostrophes, inverted commas, or quotation marks (" "), indicating that the item preceding is to be repeated
- 6
USTo make a copy using a ditto machine
- 7
A suit of clothes of the same color throughout
- 8
A copy made by (run off by) a ditto machine (especially, a worksheet thus reproduced)
Please run off twenty-four dittos of this assignment for my students
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, dido or ditto?
dido appears about once in every 2 million words; ditto 2.4 times per million words.
dido about once in every 2 million wordsditto 2.4 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search dido vs ditto?
“dido vs ditto” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“ditto vs dido”, “dido or ditto”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.