chemo
/ˈkiːməʊ/
"chemo" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chemo” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #20,880 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #20,880
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Clipping of chemotherapy.
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 | chemo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkiːməʊ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #20,880 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chemo” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chemo is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkiːməʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #20,880 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Clipping of chemotherapy.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for chemo, with forms such as "cchemo", "cehmo", and "chemmo". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cho", "Chen", "chew", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is chemo, spelled C-H-E-M-O.
Definition
- 1Clipping of chemotherapy.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cchemo,cehmo,chemmo,cheom,chhemo,chmeo,hcemo
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chemo - 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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Using “chemo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-E-M-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkiːməʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cho” - see the side-by-side comparison. chemo vs cho
- 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.