dicevsdiezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“dice” and “diez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,417
“dice” frequency rank
#48,450
“diez” frequency rank
92867
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dice diez
Definition Pluriel de die. Dés à jouer. Forme mutée de tiez par adoucissement (t → d).

Where the eye mixes dice and diez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dice (CVCV) and diez (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
dice
4 ch
diez

Visual trap between dice and diez

A purely visual mix-up. dice (\ˈdaɪs\) and diez (\ˈdiːɛs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dice is recorded at frequency rank #44,417, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈdaɪs\. diez is at rank #48,450, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdiːɛs\.

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 92867, this pair ranks #2,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dice vs diez

Shared letters: dei. Private to "dice": c. Private to "diez": z.

"dice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "diez" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dice ← dcie · ddice · dicce · diec · idce
  • diez ← ddiez · deiz · diezz · dize · idez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dice" for "diez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈdaɪs\ versus \ˈdiːɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dice" vs "diez" - which ranks higher?
"dice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,417 in our French list, against #48,450 for "diez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "diez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dice" and "diez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diez vs dz". 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 #2,697 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list