What the dots on dominoes are called
The dots on a domino are called pips. Wikipedia defines them as "small but easily countable items, such as the dots on dominoes and dice, or the symbols on a playing card", and its dominoes article records the alternatives: each end of a tile carries "a number of spots (also called pips or dots) or is blank". Spots and dots are both correct; pips is the word the rule books use, and it is the word that matters, because almost every way of scoring a domino game counts pips rather than tiles.
Pips, spots or dots
All three words describe the same thing and none of them is wrong. Pip is the term used across the whole family of counting games, so the same word covers the dots on a die and the suit symbols on a playing card. Wikipedia notes that the card sense was originally spelled "peep", and that pip cards are also called "numerals or numeral cards, number cards, spot cards, or spotters".
A domino is divided into two halves and each half carries its own pip count, from zero up to the highest number in the set. Zero is shown as an empty half rather than as a symbol, which is why the word blank does the work that a nought would do on a die.
Tiles are named after the two counts they carry, higher end first or lower end first depending on who is talking. Wikipedia gives the tile bearing two and five as "Deuce-five", "Five-deuce", "2–5" or "5–2", all describing one tile. A tile with the same count on both halves is a double, or a doublet; a tile with two different counts is a single.
How many pips are in a set
Every set is built the same way: one tile for every unordered pair of numbers from zero up to the set maximum, doubles included, no duplicates. That construction fixes both the tile count and the pip total, so neither is a convention anybody chose and neither varies between manufacturers.
Each value appears on exactly two more tile-ends than there are values in the set, once against every other value plus twice on its own double. That gives a set maximum of N a pip total of (N + 2) × (0 + 1 + … + N), which is where every figure in the table below comes from.
| Set | Highest end | Tiles | Total pips | Mean pips per tile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Double-six | 6 | 28 | 168 | 6.0 |
| Double-nine | 9 | 55 | 495 | 9.0 |
| Double-twelve | 12 | 91 | 1092 | 12.0 |
| Double-fifteen | 15 | 136 | 2040 | 15.0 |
| Double-eighteen | 18 | 190 | 3420 | 18.0 |
The mean rises with the set because adding a higher number adds it to every tile that carries it. A double-six averages six pips a tile; a double-eighteen averages eighteen. That is the reason a bigger set is not simply a longer game: being caught holding tiles costs proportionally more.
Why the count decides the game
In the Block and Draw games nothing is scored until a round ends, and then the winner takes the pips left in every other hand. Holding the 6–6 at the wrong moment costs twelve; holding the 0–0 costs nothing. That single rule is why experienced players lead with their heaviest tiles and keep blanks back.
All Fives scores during the round instead, awarding points whenever the numbers showing at the open ends add up to a multiple of five. Both methods count pips, never tiles, so a player can end a round with more tiles than anyone else and still lose the fewest points.
- A tile’s value is the sum of its two halves, so the 6–4 is worth ten.
- A blank half contributes nothing, and the 0–0 is worth nothing at all.
- A double is worth twice its number, so the 6–6 is the most expensive tile in a double-six set.
- The whole double-six set is worth 168 pips across 28 tiles.
Common questions
What are the dots on a domino called?
- Pips. Spots and dots are both accepted alternatives, and Wikipedia lists all three, but pips is the term used in rule books and in scoring, where a hand is counted in pips rather than in tiles.
What are the black dots on dominoes?
- They are the pips, and they are the tile’s value. Each half of the tile carries its own count, and the two together name the tile: a half with two pips beside a half with five is the 2–5.
How many pips are on a set of dominoes?
- A double-six set holds 168 pips across 28 tiles. A double-nine holds 495 across 55, and a double-twelve holds 1092 across 91.
Why do some dominoes have no dots?
- An empty half is a blank and counts as zero. Every set includes a full run of blank tiles, from the 0–0 up to the blank paired with the highest number, because the set is built from every pair of numbers starting at zero.
Are the pips on dominoes the same as on dice?
- They are the same idea and the same word. A die face and a domino half both show a count in dots, and both are called pips. The arrangements differ because a domino half runs to nine, twelve, fifteen or eighteen in the larger sets, well past anything a die face shows.
What is the highest pip value on one domino?
- It is twice the set maximum, carried by the highest double. That is twelve on the 6–6 in a double-six set and thirty-six on the 18–18 in a double-eighteen.