duce
/ˈduːtʃeɪ/
"duce" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“duce” is an uncommon English word, ranked #52,284 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #52,284
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An authoritarian leader, especially Benito Mussolini.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | duce |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈduːtʃeɪ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #52,284 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “duce” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for duce is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈduːtʃeɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #52,284 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An authoritarian leader, especially Benito Mussolini.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for duce in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian duce. Doublet of doge, duc, duke, and dux. The correct English form is duce, spelled D-U-C-E.
Definition
- 1An authoritarian leader, especially Benito Mussolini.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian duce. Doublet of doge, duc, duke, and dux.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “duce”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-U-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈduːtʃeɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.