duce

\du.tʃe\

/\du.tʃe\/ noun

The verdict

“duce” is uncommon French (frequency #52,625 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#52,625
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Titre porté par Mussolini.

Corpus desk

Index FR-duce · duce · French

duce · rank #52,625 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #52,625
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH Dubrovnik

Nearest frequency peer: Dubrovnik (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « duce »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « duce » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for duce
PropertyValue
Headwordduce
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\du.tʃe\
Letters4
Frequency rank#52,625
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « duce » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.ducetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « Dubrovnik » (#52,624), « Ducharme » (#52,626), « Duprat » (#52,627). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « duce » est au #52,625. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

duce is uncommon French at frequency #52,625 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \du.tʃe\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for duce in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is duce, spelled D-U-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Titre porté par Mussolini.
  2. 2
    Titre prêté à quelqu’un et faisant référence à la personnalité de Benito Mussolini.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais, bien sûr, contrairement à des écrits pédagogiques qui éduquent chez l’enfant, le libre arbitre, l’autonomie et l’engagement individuel, dans les textes destinés aux enfants fascistes tout converge vers la sacralisation du duce et de ses objectifs de conquêtes bellicistes.
  2. Pour les autres, une défaite serait la fin de la démocratie, le début du fascisme aux États-Unis par le Duce Trump.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "duce"?
"duce" is spelled D-U-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \du.tʃe\.
What does "duce" mean?
As a noun, "duce" means: Titre porté par Mussolini.
How do you pronounce "duce"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "duce" is \du.tʃe\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "duce" come from?
"duce" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "duce", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list