Singular of "dice"

Question

After a discussion on the topic I found out that Oxford Dictionary Online [courtesy of Grammarphobia; Oct 2016] has a usage note stating that

Historically, dice is the plural of die, but in modern standard English dice is both the singular and the plural: 'throw the dice' could mean a reference to either one or more than one dice.

and Longman [adjusted slightly], for instance, concurs

dice [noun] [count] (plural [also] dice) [(in singular, also die): a small block of wood, plastic etc that has six sides with a different number of spots on each side, used in games

Which unsurprisingly surprised me. Now, I have long ago accepted that languages are living things and I am fine accepting change, however in this particular case I am not sure just how accepted this use is. The Oxford dictionary referred to makes no mention of this use being slang which suggests it should be valid in 'proper' English as well and no reference is even made to die except as a 'see also' and the historical use.

So, does this mean uses like

We lost one dice whilst playing the game yesterday.

and

The 3D artist was developing a dice model, to be printed later.

are both valid?

Answer 1

I have never heard of "dice" being used as a singular instead of die. As a collective noun which could include one, sure:

Go on and roll the dice. How many dice do I roll? Just one.

But as a straight, unambiguous singular?

Roll one dice

or even worse

Roll a dice

sounds off to me. So I went to check published usage to see if I was being overly pedantic.

I ran a Google books search for the phrases "roll one die" and "roll one dice." I got:

• 5,540 results for "roll one die"
• 139 results for "roll one dice"

Browsing through the first page of results, a lot of the hits on "roll one dice" seem to be either self-published books or false positives for phrases like "roll one's dice" or "re-roll one dice roll," neither of which support Oxford's rule.

Running an Ngram...the Ngram viewer had no trouble with "roll one die" but could not find "roll one dice" at all.

Add to this the fact that "die" is commonly used in idioms like "The die is cast"--this doesn't guarantee that it's current and understood (see "short shrift") but it is another piece of evidence on the pile.

Based on this--and my experience--I would respectfully disagree that "roll one die" is archaic or obsolete in modern English. Even if "roll one dice" is gaining ground as an alternate form, "roll one die" is still the preferred singular, at least in formal writing.

Answer 2

In my experience, "die" is the singular of dice. Dictionary.com has my back on this one.

"One die" sounds better to me than "one dice."

Answer 3

Both forms are currently widely used. Singular die remains more frequent overall, but singular dice is also reasonably common, even in formal writing, and especially in British English.

A google ngrams graph for throw a die vs. throw a dice shows that die has remained consistently more frequent, but that the difference has been generally shrinking over time. In recent decades, throw a die wins by a factor of about 1.5--2. Comparing roll a die/dice gives a larger difference, a factor of about 7--10.

Restricting to UK usage, however, the story changes. In roll a die/dice, die is still the winner, but by a much smaller margin; and with throw a die/dice, they have been close to equally popular for a while, with dice more common since 1990 but die regaining ground recently.

(I speculate that the reason for the throw/roll difference is that throw is mostly used casually, while roll is preferred by serious gamers.)

Answer 4

DIE, n. The singular of "dice." We seldom hear the word, because there is a prohibitory proverb, "Never say die." At long intervals, however, some one says: "The die is cast," which is not true, for it is cut. The word is found in an immortal couplet by that eminent poet and domestic economist, Senator Depew:

A cube of cheese no larger than a die
May bait the trap to catch a nibbling mie.

— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Answer 5

Even if it is legal, I would only use "dice" in a plural sense, because either the plural sense definition appears before the singular definition, or most of the examples for "dice" are plural, and because of the fact that "die" is specifically listed as the singular of "dice":

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dice

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dice

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/dice

The problem is that according to the Oxford dictionary, "dice" can be interpreted either as singular or plural, making the definition ambiguous. If the reader knows the sentences are written in Modern Standard English, using the word "one" before "dice" could resolve the problem. How would the reader know the sentences are Modern Standard English and were not written before the time when this became a standard, or know that the sentences didn't contain older references?

In this sentence, dice is not ambiguous because of the word "one":

"We lost one dice whilst playing the game yesterday."

However, in the following sentence:

"We lost dice whilst playing the game yesterday."

This sentence could be also interpreted to mean that "we lost one (pair of) dice", E.G. that you actually lost 2 dice.

Even though this usage is valid according to the dictionary, without the use of the word "one", anyone who has seen the word "die" used as the singular or found a dictionary entry listing "die" as the singular will have to guess as to whether "dice" is being used in the singular or plural sense.

---

In this sentence:

"The 3D artist was developing a dice model, to be printed later."

The word "a" before "dice model" suggests that there is only one actual model to be printed, but it's not clear whether a dice model refers to one model of only one die, or to one model of multiple dice.

Could either of these sentences be used?

"The 3D artist was developing a model of only one die, to be printed later."

"The 3D artist was developing a model of (two, three) dice, to be printed later."

Answer 6

In addition to the other answers here, I would like to add two more things I found and noticed whilst researching this topic a bit more. Originally I believed that doing a Google search was impossible as the “a” in a search for “a dice” will be ignored by Google. However, replacing “a” with “one” does work. The only problem is that “one die” is also present in sentences like

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die.
(Romans 5:7, King James Version)

However it is still illustrative that one die gets 370,000 results and one dice still gets 170,000 results (both the same order of magnitude, and even quite close).

However, Google Ngrams, which graphs the use within books rather than on websites, gives a totally different view where one dice is used 30 times less than one die (where one die again is over represented for the reasons mentioned earlier).

Either way, this supports the notion that one dice is still only slang, but is gaining traction quicker than the other answers suggested.

Answer 7

From my bygone days of playing Dungeons and Dragons, and can attest that the term for a single simple device for generating a random integer is in fact "die". I'm sure that some people will say "dice" but most D&D players will say "die".

When throwing a die, D&D players would refer to the device by it's type, i.e. D6. But if it just rolled away or needed to be referred to in general, "die" was the word. "Ouch, I just stepped on a die!" .

Answer 8

Since there are several answerers saying they've basically never heard of 'dice' being singular, I'll just throw in my own (UK) experience:

'Dice' is always the word I've used for singular and plural, in the manner of 'fish' or 'sheep'. In the past if I ever heard 'die' I guess I imagined it was non-standard or a sloppy translation. In recent years I've gradually noticed that 'die' is also common (more common?) and is accepted too, although it always causes me to notice it -- it never feels completely natural.

We lost one dice whilst playing the game yesterday.

To me this sounds technically correct, but clumsy. It should usually be 'a dice', not 'one dice', and 'while' flows better than 'whilst'; then it's fine.

The 3D artist was developing a dice model, to be printed later.

This sounds perfect. (On the other hand, if you said 'die model' I'd hear only 'dye model' and wonder what it was about.)

Answer 9

It is most definitely an issue of national usage patterns. "Die" has historical precedence as the singular, but I can attest that "dice" is presently the preferred singular in Australian English, and others have indicated the same for UK English. A preference for "die" seems to be characteristic of US English.

Answer 10

When one studies the word dice in various dictionaries - older and newer ones - one can only say there is a lot of insecurity about singular and plural, and even about the etymology.

I think I remember to have read in an older source that dice would mean a pair of these cubes and for one cube one should say one of the dice". I think to use the word as singular and plural is the simplest way to have this insecurity eliminated.

As to the etymology etymonline says the origin is uncertain. But they give as probable origin Latin dare/datum to give/ given. I think I remember to have read about the Latin source digitus, and digits. I have not the time to check all sources, this is only meant to show there is a lot of insecurity.

Answer 11

"Passage, a game at dice, played by two persons using three dice." -A glossary and etymological dictionary of obsolete ... . Toone, William.

"I've had a lucky hand these fifteen years At such court-passage, with three dice in a dish.-" O.P. Women Beware Women -The works of Thomas Middleton, now first collected, ... v.4. Middleton, Thomas, d. 1627

"RAF'FLING (of raster, F.) a play with three dice, wherein he that throws the greatest pair, or pair-royal, wins." -An universal etymological English dictionary ... v. 2. Bailey, N. (Nathan), d. 1742.

"To COG, to cheat at Dice. To cog a Die; to conceal or secure a Die" -An universal etymological English dictionary ... v. 2. Bailey, N. (Nathan), d. 1742.

&

"Dice Picker (dice) A houseman whose job is to pick up the dice that have fallen from the table. Die (dice) Singular of Dice." -Dictionary of gambling. . Salak, John S.