duct
/dʌkt/noun, verb
duct is spelled D-U-C-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.8 times per million words in written English, the 13,321st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, duct means “A pipe, tube or canal which carries gas or liquid from one place to another” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of duct is ducts.
How many letters and syllables are in duct?
| Letters | 4: D-U-C-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.8 times per million words; the 13,321st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 duct?
Duct appears 3.8 times per million words in written English, the 13,321st 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 duct?
- /dʌkt/
Duct 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-duct.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of duct
- ducts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- ducting participle, present
- ducted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does duct mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A pipe, tube or canal which carries gas or liquid from one place to another.
heating and air-conditioning ducts
- 2
An enclosure or channel for electrical cable runs, telephone cables, or other conductors.
- 3
A vessel for conveying lymph or glandular secretions such as tears or bile.
- 4
A tube or elongated cavity (such as a xylem vessel) for conveying water, sap, or air.
- 5
A layer (as in the atmosphere or the ocean) which occurs under usually abnormal conditions and in which radio or sound waves are confined to a restricted path.
- 6
obsoleteGuidance, direction.
verb
- 1
To enclose in a duct.
- 2
To channel something (such as a gas) or propagate something (such as radio waves) through a duct or series of ducts.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Duct in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense pipe, tube or canal which carries air or liquid from one place to another:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tuyau, conduit, canalisation |
| German | Leitung, Rohr |
| Portuguese | duto, tubo |
| Spanish | conducto |
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 duct come from?
Borrowed from Latin ductus (“leading, conducting”, noun), from dūcō (“to lead, conduct, draw”) + -tus (action noun suffix). Doublet of ductus and douit. Also via Medieval Latin ductus (“a conveyance of water; a channel”), which itself has the first mentioned etymology.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).