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duck

/dʌk/verb, noun

duck is spelled D-U-C-K: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, duck means “To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in duck?

Letters4: D-U-C-K
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing16 times per million words; the 5,025th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is duck?

Duck appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce duck?

  • /dʌk/
  • /dʊk/

Duck has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-duck.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_duck.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with duck

Also written: duck, duck, gray duck.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of duck

  • ducks present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • ducking participle, present
  • ducked participle, past
  • dook
  • doock

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does duck mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To quickly lower (the head or body), often in order to prevent it from being struck by something.

  2. 2

    To lower (something) into water; to thrust or plunge under liquid and suddenly withdraw.

  3. 3

    To go under the surface of water and immediately reappear; to plunge one's head into water or other liquid.

  4. 4

    To bow.

  5. 5

    To evade doing something, especially something considered a responsibility.

  6. 6

    To lower the volume of (a sound) so that other sounds in the mix can be heard more clearly.

  7. 7

    colloquialTo enter a place for a short moment.

    I'm just going to duck into the loo for a minute; can you hold my bag?

  8. 8

    To surreptitiously leave a rubber duck on someone's parked Jeep as an act of kindness (see Jeep ducking).

noun

  1. 1

    A cave passage containing water with low, or no, airspace.

  2. 2

    Any of certain aquatic birds of the family Anatidae, having a flat bill and webbed feet, distinguished from swans and geese by generally being smaller and shorter-necked.

  3. 3

    Specifically, an adult female duck; contrasted with drake and with duckling.

  4. 4

    The flesh of a duck used as food.

  5. 5

    A batsman's score of zero after getting out. (Short for duck's egg.)

  6. 6

    slangA playing card with the rank of two.

  7. 7

    Ellipsis of architectural duck; a building intentionally constructed in the shape of an everyday object to which it is related.

    A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.

  8. 8

    A marble to be shot at with another marble (the shooter) in children's games.

  9. 9

    USA cairn used to mark a trail.

  10. 10

    A tightly-woven cotton or linen fabric, often used as sailcloth.

    Near-synonym: sailduck

  11. 11

    Trousers made of such material.

  12. 12

    A term of endearment; pet; darling.

  13. 13

    An affectionate (sometimes slightly patronising or jocular) term for a person, often (in collocations old duck and dear old duck) an elderly woman.

  14. 14

    Dear, mate (informal way of addressing a friend or stranger).

    Ay up duck, ow'a'tha?

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Duck in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchesquiver (to quickly lower the head or body (intransitive)), baisser (to quickly lower the head (transitive)), plonger (to lower into the water), canard (aquatic bird of the family Anatidae), cane, canard femelle (female duck)
Germansich ducken, sich schnell bücken (to quickly lower the head or body (intransitive)), ducken (to quickly lower the head (transitive)), untertauchen (to lower into the water), Ente (aquatic bird of the family Anatidae), ausweichen (to try to evade doing something)
Portugueseagachar-se, abaixar-se (to quickly lower the head or body (intransitive)), agachar, abaixar (to quickly lower the head (transitive)), mergulhar (to lower into the water), esquivar (to try to evade doing something)
Spanishagacharse, esconderse (to quickly lower the head or body (intransitive)), sumergirse (to quickly lower the head (transitive)), sumergir, hundir (to lower into the water), eludir (to try to evade doing something)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does duck come from?

From Middle English ducken, duken, douken (“to duck, plunge under water, submerge”), from Old English *dūcan (“to dip, dive, duck”), from Proto-West Germanic *dūkan, from Proto-Germanic *dūkaną (“to dip, dive, bend down, stoop, duck”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after duck