overcame
/ˌəʊ.vəˈkeɪm/
"overcame" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“overcame” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #20,728. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #20,728
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - simple past of overcome
Corpus desk
Index EN-overcame · overcame · English
overcame · rank #20,728 · 11 variants · 4 confusables
- FREQ-MID #20,728
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH outage
Nearest frequency peer: outage (-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 “overcame”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- ordinarily
ordinarily
79,276 corpus weight
- orthodoxy
orthodoxy
79,275 corpus weight
- outage
outage
79,274 corpus weight
- overcame
overcame
79,273 corpus weight
- packer
packer
79,271 corpus weight
- paternal
paternal
79,270 corpus weight
What this shows “overcame” 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 | overcame |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˌəʊ.vəˈkeɪm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #20,728 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “overcame”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around overcame (IPA /ˌəʊ.vəˈkeɪm/), averb. Corpus frequency is #20,728 among 1,431 “O” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for overcame, with forms such as "oevrcame", "ovecrame", and "overacme". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "overcome", "overtime", "overtake", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is overcame, spelled O-V-E-R-C-A-M-E.
Definition
- 1simple past of overcome
- 2past participle of overcome
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how overcame appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Had he been merely Man, he could never have overcame thoſe infinite Afflictions he ſo patiently endured.
[…]not because his faith has overcame the supreme being, but because it has overcame the sinner's will, and brought him where the Lord promised to pardon.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- oevrcame
- ovecrame
- overacme
- overcaem
- overcamme
- overccame
- overcmae
- overrcame
- ovrecame
- ovvercame
- voercame
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of overcame - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "overcame", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).