duce

Borrowed from Italian duce. Doublet of doge, duc, duke, and dux.

• IPA^(key): /ˈduːtʃeɪ/

duce (plural duci)

1. (fascism) An authoritarian leader, especially Benito Mussolini.

Borrowed from Latin dux, ducis (“leader”). Compare the likewise borrowed doublets duca and doge.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdu.t͡ʃe/
• Rhymes: -utʃe
• Hyphenation: dù‧ce

duce m (plural duci)

1. (archaic or literary) captain, leader, helm

   Synonyms: capitano, capo, condottiero

2. (by extension, after the Fascist era) an authoritarian leader

   Synonyms: autocrate, despota, dittatore, oppressore, tiranno

• Duce

• ducato

dūce

1. alternative form of dūc (“lead!, guide!”), second-person singular present active imperative of dūcō.

While common in Plautus, dūc is the far more common variant in the classical period.

duce m or f

1. ablative singular of dux

From the original meaning of "diver," from Proto-West Germanic *dūkan (“to duck, dive”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈduː.ke/, /ˈdu.ke/

dū̆ce f

1. duck (bird)

   Synonym: ened

Weak feminine (n-stem):

• Middle English: doke, ducke, dukke, dokke, douke, duke
  • English: duck
  • Scots: duik, deuk, dook
  • Yola: duucks (plural)

• IPA^(key): /ˈdu.t͡ʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ut͡ʃe
• Hyphenation: du‧ce

Inherited from Latin dūcere, from Proto-Italic *doukō, from Proto-Indo-European *déwketi, from the root *dewk-.

a duce (third-person singular present duce, past participle dus, third-person subjunctive ducă) 3rd conjugation

1. (transitive) to carry, lead, take

   Cine duce copiii la școală?

   Who takes the children to school?

2. (intransitive) to lead, to go

   Drumul acesta duce la casa mea.

   This road leads to my house.

3. (reflexive) to go

   Mă duc acasă. ― I’m going home.

4. (reflexive, figuratively) to die
5. (ambitransitive, informal) to withstand, handle, weather, deal with

   O să-ți dau de lucru de să nu poți duce.

   I’ll give you so much to do that you won’t be able to take it.

The negative imperative of verbs is known to always be identical to the infinitive. However, like many of the verbs with a short imperative, duce often does not follow this rule in colloquial usage, keeping the same form as the imperative: Nu (te) duce—prescribed; nu (te) du—common in practice.^[1]

The same applies to the derived verbs.

• ducă
• duce de nas
• ducere

Modified, to be adapted to the Latin, from the older form ducă, itself from Italian duca, and partly through Byzantine Greek δούκα (doúka), ultimately from Latin dux.

• ducă — archaic

duce m (plural duci)

2. duke

• “duce”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025