camshaft
/ˈkæmʃæft/
"camshaft" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“camshaft” is uncommon English (frequency #54,670 among 43,570 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,670
- frequency rank, English
- 43,570
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A shaft fitted with cams; especially one in a piston engine that activates the valves.
Corpus desk
Index EN-camshaft · camshaft · English
camshaft · rank #54,670 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,670
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 43,570
- PHOTO-FINISH Camberwell
Nearest frequency peer: Camberwell (-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 neighbourhood for “camshaft”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- cakewalk
cakewalk
45,334 corpus weight
- Caliente
Caliente
45,333 corpus weight
- Camberwell
Camberwell
45,332 corpus weight
- camshaft
camshaft
45,331 corpus weight
- cann
cann
45,330 corpus weight
- capitalisat…
capitalisation
45,329 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “camshaft” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | camshaft |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkæmʃæft/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #54,670 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “camshaft” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
camshaft is uncommon English at frequency #54,670 among 43,570 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkæmʃæft/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A shaft fitted with cams; especially one in a piston engine that activates the valves.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for camshaft, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From cam + shaft. The correct English form is camshaft, spelled C-A-M-S-H-A-F-T.
Definition
- 1A shaft fitted with cams; especially one in a piston engine that activates the valves.
Etymology
From cam + shaft.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "camshaft", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.