duc

\dyk\

/\dyk\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“duc” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #2,118) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#2,118
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Titre qui était le plus élevé parmi l’ancienne noblesse de France et de quelques autres États.

Corpus desk

Index FR-duc · duc · French

duc · rank #2,118 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,118
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH dessin

Nearest frequency peer: dessin (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « duc »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « duc » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

duc vs DV
0% similar
duc vs dy
33% similar
duc vs dz
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for duc
PropertyValue
Headwordduc
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dyk\
Letters3
Frequency rank#2,118
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « duc »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.ducse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « dessin » (#2,117), « Daniel » (#2,116), « contient » (#2,115). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « duc » est au #2,118. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for duc is neighbouring look-alikes ("DV", "dy", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \dyk\. Frequency #2,118 among 5,307 “D” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

No generated misspelling entries exist for duc in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "DV", "dy", "dz", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is duc, spelled D-U-C.

Definition

  1. 1
    Titre qui était le plus élevé parmi l’ancienne noblesse de France et de quelques autres États.
  2. 2
    Titre de quelques princes souverains.
  3. 3
    Voiture hippomobile de luxe ressemblant, mais en plus grand à une victoria, avec seulement deux places. À l'avant et à l'arrière des places assises il y a un banc pour la domesticité.
  4. 4
    Nom donné à plusieurs espèces d’oiseaux nocturnes de la famille des strigidés.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how duc appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le duc de Guise reconduisit sa belle-sœur, la duchesse de Nevers, en son hôtel qui était situé rue du Chaume, en face de la rue de Brac, […].
  2. Des impôts considérables accablaient les vilains, écrasait les pauvres gens, épargnant les princes et les ducs, les comtes et les marquis.

This word in other languages

duke(English)duque(Español)Herzog(Deutsch)duque(Português)

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "duc"?
"duc" is spelled D-U-C. The IPA pronunciation is \dyk\.
What does "duc" mean?
As a noun, "duc" means: Titre qui était le plus élevé parmi l’ancienne noblesse de France et de quelques autres États.
What words are commonly confused with "duc"?
"duc" is commonly confused with "DV", "dy", "dz". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "duc"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "duc" is \dyk\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "duc" come from?
"duc" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "duc", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

min#2,135for#2,077fit#2,175cap#2,029

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list