dye
/daɪ/noun, verb
dye is spelled D-Y-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “die vs dye” about 720 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, dye means “A colorant, especially one that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is applied” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dye is dyes.
How many letters and syllables are in dye?
| Letters | 3: D-Y-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.6 times per million words; the 9,313th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is dye?
Dye appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th 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 dye?
- /daɪ/
Dye 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dye.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with dye
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: die (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: die.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with dye?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as dye.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: dey, yed.
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 dye
- dyes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- die
- dyeing participle, present
- dyed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dye mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A colorant, especially one that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is applied.
- 2
Any hue or color.
verb
- 1
To colour with dye, or as if with dye.
You look different. Have you had your hair dyed?
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dye in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | teinture , teindre |
| German | Färbemittel, Färbmittel, Färbung (Farbnuance), Farbstoff , färben, einfärben |
| Portuguese | corante, tintura , tingir |
| Spanish | tinte, tintura , teñir, tinturar |
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 dye come from?
From Middle English deye, from Old English dēah, dēag (“color, hue, dye”), from Proto-West Germanic *daugu (“color, shade”), from *daugan (“to conceal, be dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust, camouflage”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).