cam
[kæm]
"cam" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cam” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,032 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,032
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A turning or sliding piece which imparts motion to a rod, lever or block brought into sliding or rolling contact with it.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cam |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [kæm] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #6,032 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cam” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cam is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [kæm]. Corpus data places it at rank #6,032 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for cam, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "co", "CD", "CM", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *ǵómbʰos Recorded since the 16th century, from Dutch kam (“cog of a wheel; originally, comb”) (cognate with English comb, and preserved in modern Dutch compounds such as kamrad, kamwiel (“cog wheel”)). Doublet of comb. The correct English form is cam, spelled C-A-M.
Definition
- 1A turning or sliding piece which imparts motion to a rod, lever or block brought into sliding or rolling contact with it.
- 2A turning or sliding piece which imparts motion to a rod, lever or block brought into sliding or rolling contact with it.
- 3A ridge or mound of earth.
- 4A spring-loaded camming device, a spring-loaded device for effecting a temporary belay in a rock crevice.
Etymology
PIE word *ǵómbʰos Recorded since the 16th century, from Dutch kam (“cog of a wheel; originally, comb”) (cognate with English comb, and preserved in modern Dutch compounds such as kamrad, kamwiel (“cog wheel”)). Doublet of comb.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “cam”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [kæm] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “co” - see the side-by-side comparison. cam vs co
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.