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dime

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dime¹

  • /daɪm/

Rhymes with -aɪm

Where it comes 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.

noun dimes

  1. Canada, US A coin worth one-tenth of a dollar, that is, ten cents. The San Francisco mint made about 2.5 million of these dimes, but fewer than 10 are still known to exist, according to Heritage. That’s because a financial crisis in 1893 killed demand for new coinage, and almost all the dimes were melted down.

    Similar: ten-cent piece

  2. Canada, US A small amount of money. She didn't spend a dime.
  3. Philippines, US An assist.
  4. slang A playing card with the rank of ten.
  5. slang Ten dollars.
  6. slang A thousand dollars. At one point, Rob hit a dire losing streak. In a single week, he dropped a dime—$1,000.

    Similar: grand

  7. slang A measure of illicit drugs (usually marijuana) sold in ten-dollar bags.
  8. slang A ten-year prison sentence. These deaths got him a dime in a minimum-security prison.
  9. slang Payment responsibility. Are you traveling on the company's dime?
  10. US, slang A beautiful woman (10 on a 10-point scale). Make a couple of nuns a couple of dimes.

    Similar: dime piece

  11. A defensive formation with six defensive backs, one of whom is a dimeback.
  12. Canadian A particularly long or precise throw that ends with a catch.

dime²

  • /daɪm/

Rhymes with -aɪm

Where it comes from

From the use of the coin in a payphone to report a crime to the police. US payphones charged 10¢ in almost all jurisdictions until the late 1970s.

verb dimes · diming · dimed

  1. US, slang, with "on" To inform on, to turn in to the authorities, to rat on, especially anonymously. Somebody dimed on me and I got arrested for selling marijuana.

    Similar: drop a dime on someone, dime out, bewray, blow the whistle, clepe, denounce, dime, dob, drop a dime, finger, fink, fizgig

  2. US, slang To 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.

Dime³

proper noun

  1. An Omotic language, spoken by fewer than 10,000 speakers in Ethiopia.

DIME⁴

proper noun

  1. Internet, abbreviation, acronym Acronym of Dark Internet Mail Environment

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: priced, dollar, penny, shilling, hundred, cent, coin, currency, scholarship, money, room, suite, ten, piece, bomb, fellowship

Translations

Every language

noun a coin worth one-tenth of a dollar

DeutschZehncentstück
Italianodecino
Ελληνικάδεκάρα dekára
Русскиймоне́та в 10 центов monéta v 10 centov, десятице́нтовик desjaticéntovik

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MLA

"dime." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dime. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

APA

dime. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dime

Chicago

"dime." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 5, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dime.

BibTeX
@misc{dime_2026,
  title = {dime},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dime},
  urldate = {2026-11-05}
}