cameo
/ˈkæm.iː.əʊ//ˈkæm.i.oʊ/
cameo noun: a piece of jewelry, etc., carved in relief.

Noun
cameo (plural cameos or cameoes or camei)
- A piece of jewelry, etc., carved in relief.
- 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.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 433
- SIMONE: And he tracked down Mom's cameo—the one Dad pawned? He outbid fourteen other buyers on eBay.2014, Molly Smith Metzler, Elemeno Pea, →ISBN, page 66
- A single very brief appearance, especially by a prominent celebrity in a movie or song.
- 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.
- As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
Verb
cameo (third-person singular simple present cameos, present participle cameoing, simple past and past participle cameoed)
- To appear in a cameo role.
cameo meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
cameo in Hindi
- कैमियो, केमियो
cameo in Tamil
- புடை வண்ணச் செதுக்குமணி, புடைப்புருவாகச் செதுக்கப்பட்ட மணி
cameo in Marathi
- कॅमिओ, कॅमीओ
cameo in Urdu
- کیمیو
More languagesFewer languages
- cameo in Bengali
- উত্কীর্ণ রত্ন, চলচ্চিত্রে সংক্ষিপ্ত উপস্থিতি
- cameo in Malayalam
- ചിത്രഖചിതമായ ആഭരണം, ചിത്രഖചിതമായ രത്നം, രൂപരേഖ
- cameo in Kannada
- ಕ್ಯಾಮಿಓ, ಕ್ಯಾಮಿಯೋ
- cameo in Punjabi
- ਕੈਮੀਓ, ਕੈਮਿਯੋ
- cameo in Odia
- କ୍ଯ଼ାମିଓ
- cameo in Nepali
- क्यामिओ
Examples of cameo in a sentence
- Sure enough, there was Serena Williams, dancing away in a twerkalicious cameo during the song “Sorry.”
- Also, there was a Derpy cameo in this one, but she didn't have derped eyes.
- 'My biggest dream cameo would be fellow Essex girl Victoria Beckham.
Forms of cameo
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | cameos |
| plural | cameoes |
| plural | camei |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | cameos |
| present participle | cameoing |
| past participle | cameoed |
| past | cameoed |
Origin of cameo
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.
Words formed from cameo
Phrases with cameo
Questions about cameo
- What does cameo mean?
- Cameo means a piece of jewelry, etc., carved in relief.
- What is cameo in Hindi?
- Cameo in Hindi is कैमियो, केमियो. See Cameo meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is cameo?
- Cameo can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce cameo?
- Cameo is pronounced /ˈkæm.iː.əʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of cameo?
- The plural of cameo is cameos.
Words near cameo in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cameo (page history and authors); cameo (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cameo (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cameo (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cameo (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cameo (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cameo (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cameo (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cameo (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cameo (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cameo (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cameo.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-cameo.wav.
Cite this entry: “cameo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cameo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
