duxerunt

Duxerunt is a Latin verb form, the third-person plural perfect active indicative of ducere, meaning “they led” or “they have led.” It appears in narrative and historical prose to express a completed action in the past. As a finite verb form, it carries subject, tense, mood, and voice within a single word.

Morphology and formation: Duxerunt is built from the perfect stem dux- plus the active ending -erunt for the third person plural. The subject is not explicit in the form and is supplied by context. The mood is indicative, and the voice is active; the tense is the perfect, signaling a completed event. Related forms include duxi (I led), duxisti (you led), duxit (he/she/it led), and ducere (the present infinitive).

Usage and interpretation: In classical Latin, duxerunt typically translates as “they led,” with the sense often extending to a present-perfect rendering such as “they have led” depending on the narrative context. It commonly appears in historical and military contexts, where groups such as legati or exercitus are described as having performed a leading action. A typical example is Legati duxerunt exercitum ad castra, “The envoys led the army to the camp.”

Notes: Duxerunt is one of several perfect forms of ducere; others include duxi (I led) and duxisti (you led). As a verb form, it does not have gender and agrees with an implied or stated subject in third person plural.