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duke

/dʒuːk/noun, verb

duke is spelled D-U-K-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, duke means “The male ruler of a duchy (female equivalent: duchess)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of duke is dukes.

How many letters and syllables are in duke?

Letters4: D-U-K-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing28 times per million words; the 3,288th 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 duke?

Duke appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th 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 duke?

  • /dʒuːk/
  • /djuːk/
  • /duːk/

Duke 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-uk-duke.ogg, En-us-duke.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of duke

  • dukes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • duking participle, present
  • duked participle, past

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

What does duke mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The male ruler of a duchy (female equivalent: duchess).

  2. 2

    The sovereign of a small state.

  3. 3

    A high title of nobility; the male holder of a dukedom.

  4. 4

    A grand duke.

  5. 5

    Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genera Bassarona and Dophla.

  6. 6

    slangA fist.

    Put up your dukes!

verb

  1. 1

    informalTo hit or beat with the fists.

  2. 2

    slangTo give cash to; to give a tip to.

    I duked him twenty dollars.

  3. 3

    To perform the duties of, or rule over as, a duke.

noun

as Duke
  1. 1

    The title of a duke.

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

Duke in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchduc (male ruler of a duchy)
GermanHerzog (male ruler of a duchy), Großherzog, Grossherzog (grand duke)
Portugueseduque (male ruler of a duchy), grão-duque (grand duke)
Spanishduque (male ruler of a duchy)

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 duke come from?

From Old French duc, through Middle English duk, duke, from Latin dux, ducis. Displaced native Old English heretoga. Was present as duc in late Old English, from the same Latin source. Doublet of doge, duc, duce, and dux. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk-, which is also the source of the second component in German Herzog. The “fist” sense is thought to be Cockney rhyming slang where “Duke(s) of York”

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

What to look up after duke