came

/keɪm/

//keɪm// verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"came" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“came” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #294) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#294
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - simple past of come

Corpus desk

Index EN-came · came · English

came · rank #294 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #294
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH white

Nearest frequency peer: white (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbours of confusable “came”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “came” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

came vs CM
0% similar
came vs CE
0% similar
came vs can
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for came
PropertyValue
Headwordcame
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/keɪm/
Letters4
Frequency rank#294
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “came”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).camelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “white” (#293), “far” (#295), “took” (#292). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “came” is #294. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for came is neighbouring look-alikes ("CM", "CE", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced /keɪm/. Frequency #294 among 5,599 “C” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for came, with forms such as "caem", "camme", and "ccame". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CM", "CE", "can", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: See come. The correct English form is came, spelled C-A-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    simple past of come
  2. 2
    past participle of come
  3. 3
    simple past of cum

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how came appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. With that army the British army, in the course of its operations, must have came in contact; and, if that were likely, (may rather if it was impossible to avoid it.) I will ask, whether, under all the circumstances of Europe[…]
  2. Thailand's expansion of access to secondary and tertiary education is unlikely to have came at the expense of quality. International achievement test^([sic]) show Thai students consistently outperforming not just Indonesia, whose per capita national income is less than half of Thailand's[…]

Etymology

See come.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • caem
  • camme
  • ccame
  • cmae

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of came - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

caem2camme1ccame1cmae2
Edit distance from "came"

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

How do you spell "came"?
"came" is spelled C-A-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is /keɪm/.
What does "came" mean?
As a verb, "came" means: simple past of come
What words are commonly confused with "came"?
"came" is commonly confused with "CM", "CE", "can". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "came"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "came" is /keɪm/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "came"?
See come. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "came", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

took#292side#297head#288went#300

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list