cameo
/ˈkæm.iː.əʊ/
"cameo" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cameo” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #15,358. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #15,358
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A piece of jewelry, etc., carved in relief.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cameo · cameo · English
cameo · rank #15,358 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #15,358
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Cadillac
Nearest frequency peer: Cadillac (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “cameo”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- bowler
bowler
84,647 corpus weight
- Byrne
Byrne
84,645 corpus weight
- Cadillac
Cadillac
84,644 corpus weight
- cameo
cameo
84,643 corpus weight
- caramel
caramel
84,641 corpus weight
- Cassidy
Cassidy
84,640 corpus weight
What this shows “cameo” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | cameo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkæm.iː.əʊ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #15,358 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “cameo”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around cameo (IPA /ˈkæm.iː.əʊ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #15,358 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for cameo, with forms such as "acmeo", "caemo", and "cammeo". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CEO", "Cao", "CME", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian cammeo, from Medieval Latin camaeus, of unknown origin. The movie sense is short for “cameo role” referring to a famous person who was playing no character, but him or herself. Like a cameo brooch — a low-relief carving of a person’s h… The correct English form is cameo, spelled C-A-M-E-O.
Definition
- 1A piece of jewelry, etc., carved in relief.
- 2A single very brief appearance, especially by a prominent celebrity in a movie or song.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cameo appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Aarfy's buxom trollop had vanished with her smutty cameo ring, and Nurse Duckett was ashamed of him because he had refused to fly more combat missions and would cause a scandal.
Famous comic book writer Stan Lee had a cameo in the Spider-Man movie. He was on screen for perhaps ten seconds, but aficionados distinctly remember him.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian cammeo, from Medieval Latin camaeus, of unknown origin. The movie sense is short for “cameo role” referring to a famous person who was playing no character, but him or herself. Like a cameo brooch — a low-relief carving of a person’s head or bust — the actor or celebrity is instantly recognizable. More recently, it has come to refer to any short appearances, whether as a character or as oneself. Doublet of camaieu.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- acmeo
- caemo
- cammeo
- camoe
- ccameo
- cmaeo
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cameo - 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.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cameo", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).