# What does "Roll the dice" mean to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-roll-the-dice-mean-to-you/694021 "2014-07-25T13:47:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-roll-the-dice-mean-to-you/694021/41 "2014-08-04T13:31:34Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > Looks like a lot of people haven’t paid much attention to the OP/poll here. > > Some don’t even get it’s about games, or feel the need to point out the existence of the word “die”. > > I voted for all the most common ones. I’ll talk pedantically, and expect a game book to be specific, but don’t expect everyone else to be as anal as me. Exactly - on this basis, I assume you voted the same way as me (which was, in my case, assuming more than one die in the first and third examples, but not assuming so in overhearing casual speech, because people commonly use the word “dice” when they are actually only referring to one die). Also, I was about to post that I could have sworn reading somewhere that the phrase “the die is cast” actually refers to casting metal in dies rather than rolling a die, but a little research shows that apparently that’s wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-roll-the-dice-mean-to-you/694021/42 "2014-08-04T15:08:26Z")
I’d expect to see it as “Roll one die” or “roll 1d6” in a gaming manual. In any context I’d use “die” and assume “dice” to be plural. But that might just be a background in gaming talking and I suppose if someone used “dice” as a singular casually, it wouldn’t bother me much. I’d expect a gaming manual to get it correct though. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-roll-the-dice-mean-to-you/694021/43 "2014-08-04T15:56:32Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > When heard, would you mentally assume more than one die? Would you use the phrase to mean justr one die? When heard it would bring on a “Space: Above and Beyond” flashback to the AI Wars and the whole “take a chance” thing. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-roll-the-dice-mean-to-you/694021/44 "2014-08-04T16:42:20Z")
When I see it in a game book, I expect it to refer to more than one die. The phrases “roll one dice” and “roll a dice” make Baby Jesus cry and hurt my brain. If you’re supposed to roll one, I’d expect to see “roll 1d\” (such as 1d6 or 1d20). ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-roll-the-dice-mean-to-you/694021/45 "2014-08-06T13:24:47Z")
I’ve never heard anyone refer to “a die” out loud, nor would I ever say it. However, I would expect it to be written that way in the instructions for a board game. For me, it’s in the category of things that are correct when written, but would just sound silly or pretentious in everyday speech (the same category as words like “whom”). ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-roll-the-dice-mean-to-you/694021/46 "2014-08-06T14:06:54Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > A Language is a living thing- _get used to it_. In fact many of the neologisms are for the better. Many have held on only due to the fact that pedantic highbrows like to look down upon ordinary folks as “morons”. Yes, it’s a living language, but that doesn’t mean that various usages will always become common or should be accepted. In general, I’m fine with various changes, as long as the ability to communicate a concept is maintained. As such, though I’m not a fan of “they” and prefer “one” for a singular undetermined gender, I accept it, because it’s almost always clear from context what is meant, so I don’t lose any descriptive power. I continue to resist the usage of “literally” as an intensifier, because now it’s unclear if that person means literally literally or figuratively. In this case, I wouldn’t go so far as to say someone is a moron for using dice as a singular, but I would resist the usage of such because I think a distinction between singular and plural, as with countless other nouns, is a useful distinction, particularly in a dice game where one may roll various numbers and sided dice. Especially in the case of a manual, it shouldn’t be written to be flowery, it should be written to be as unambiguous and succinct as possible. As such, specifically to the OP, in the context of a game, “roll the dice” always means 2 or more dice, otherwise it would be “roll the die”. Yes, there is the expression “roll the dice”, which means taking a chance or gambling or whatever, but I suspect it’s origin is probably tied to a dice game like craps, or odds/evens or the like which always included more than one die. And, quite frankly, other than perhaps when I was a kid, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone refer to a die as a dice, I certainly haven’t heard it related to a dice game. So, I’d have issue with the idea that it’s common usage. Of course, typically it seems the usage of die/dice is in dice games is usually eschewed in favor of something like 2d6, 1d20, etc. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-roll-the-dice-mean-to-you/694021/47 "2014-08-06T14:13:01Z")
Even though I’m something of a game geek, without a game under discussion I’d generally assume it was a metaphor and not talking about actual dice, (or a singular die.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-roll-the-dice-mean-to-you/694021.md?page=2)