Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various gold coins formerly used in certain European countries.
  • noun A piece of money.
  • noun An admission ticket.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A gold coin of varying form and value, formerly in use in several European countries.
  • noun An old money of account in the Venetian republic.
  • noun plural Money; cash.
  • noun An Austrian weight for gold, which has been determined by Vienna authorities to be 3.490896 grams. This unit is supposed to have been derived through the Jews from the Ptolemaic drachma of 3.56 grams.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A coin, either of gold or silver, of several countries in Europe; originally, one struck in the dominions of a duke.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical A gold coin minted by various European nations.
  • noun Money in general.
  • noun A dollar (and, by extension, a eurodollar).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun formerly a gold coin of various European countries

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Old Italian ducato, from Medieval Latin ducātus, duchy (a word used on one of the early ducats); see duchy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French ducat, from Medieval Latin ducatus, from oblique stem of dux ("duke; leader").

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Examples

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  • Usage/historical note in comment on carica.

    November 28, 2017