dime
/daɪm/noun, verb
dime is spelled D-I-M-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dime means “A coin worth one-tenth of a dollar, that is, ten cents” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dime is dimes.
How many letters and syllables are in dime?
| Letters | 4: D-I-M-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.6 times per million words; the 11,870th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is dime?
Dime appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce dime?
- /daɪm/
Dime has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-dime.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with dime?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as dime.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: demi, idem.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of dime
- dimes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- diming participle, present
- dimed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dime mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
CanadaUSA coin worth one-tenth of a dollar, that is, ten cents.
- 2
CanadaUSA small amount of money.
She didn't spend a dime.
- 3
USAn assist.
- 4
slangA playing card with the rank of ten.
- 5
slangTen dollars.
- 6
slangA thousand dollars.
- 7
slangA measure of illicit drugs (usually marijuana) sold in ten-dollar bags.
- 8
slangA ten-year prison sentence.
verb
- 1
USslangTo inform on, to turn in to the authorities, to rat on, especially anonymously.
Somebody dimed on me and I got arrested for selling marijuana.
- 2
USslangTo operate an audio amplifier (especially an electric guitar amplifier) at level "10" (typically the highest amplification level).
I get the best-sounding sustain and smooth harmonic distortion when I run the amp dimed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dime in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a coin worth one-tenth of a dollar:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Zehncentstück |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does dime come from?
From Middle English dime, from Anglo-Norman disme (“one tenth, tithe”) (modern French dîme), from Medieval Latin decima, from Latin decima (pars) (“tenth (part)”). Doublet of decim, decima, and decime.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).