Under standard conditions, the elements dysprosium and tin combine to form a number of intermetallic compounds, the dysprosium stannides. Dysprosium stannides with simple empirical formulas include Dy<sub>5</sub>Sn<sub>3</sub> and DySn<sub>2</sub>, but four other intermetallics have intermediate composition. None is believed to survive temperatures higher than , whereat Dy<sub>5</sub>Sn<sub>3</sub> decomposes. Although dysprosium is a lanthanoid, its f orbitals likely participate in the metallic bonding: mixing dysprosium and tin releases an enthalpy quite different from mixing samarium and tin, with gadolinium and tin intermediate.
DySn<sub>2</sub> adopts the zirconium disilicide crystal structure, and undergoes a Néel transition around . The magnetic patterning below the Néel point has periods incommensurable with the atomic unit cell, leading to a sinusoidal modulation. Theoretically, DySn<sub>2</sub> should transition at very low temperatures to a different magnetic pattern with commensurable spatial period, but even at the incommensurable pattern survives.