Duce

Il Duce (the Leader) was the title adopted by the leader of the Italian Fascist Party, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), who became Prime Minister of Italy in 1922, and took the title of Il Duce. It is a term which, if ever used in current English other than in historical writing, is pejorative, with strong connotations of 'brutal dictatorship'. The word is pronounced in the Italian fashion, with two syllables and a '-ch-' sound for the '-c-': 'DOO-tshay', IPA: /'duː tʃe/.

The word duce was translated into their own languages by two other fascist dictators of the mid-twentieth century: the German Adolf Hitler (der Führer) and the Spanish General Franco (el Caudillo).