calamus
noun
calamus is spelled C-A-L-A-M-U-S: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 106,501st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, calamus means “Sweet flag (Acorus calamus)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of calamus is calamuses or calami.
How many letters and syllables are in calamus?
| Letters | 7: C-A-L-A-M-U-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 13 million words; the 106,501st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is calamus?
Calamus appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 106,501st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Forms of calamus
- calamuses plural
- calami plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does calamus mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Sweet flag (Acorus calamus).
- 2
A quill; the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather.
- 3
A fish of genus Calamus in family Sparidae; certain porgies.
- 4
A palm in genus Calamus, of rattan palms.
- 5
A fistular stem without an articulation.
- 6
Synonym of fistula (“tube for sucking Eucharist wine”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does calamus come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin calamus (“reed, cane”). Doublet of culm, haulm, helm (Etymology 4, stalk), qalam, and shawm.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).