diff --git a/Source/cmStringAlgorithms.cxx b/Source/cmStringAlgorithms.cxx
index e13c22691b..e5f303210f 100644
--- a/Source/cmStringAlgorithms.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmStringAlgorithms.cxx
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 #include <cstddef> // IWYU pragma: keep
 #include <cstdio>
 #include <cstdlib>
+#include <limits>
 
 #include "cmsys/String.h"
 
@@ -86,6 +87,73 @@ std::string cmEscapeQuotes(cm::string_view str)
   return result;
 }
 
+std::size_t cmLevenshteinDistance(cm::string_view a, cm::string_view b)
+{
+  if (a == b) {
+    return 0;
+  }
+
+  std::size_t const aSize = a.size();
+  std::size_t const bSize = b.size();
+  if (aSize == 0) {
+    return bSize;
+  }
+  if (bSize == 0) {
+    return aSize;
+  }
+
+  std::vector<std::size_t> previous(bSize + 1, 0);
+  std::vector<std::size_t> current(bSize + 1, 0);
+
+  for (std::size_t j = 0; j <= bSize; ++j) {
+    previous[j] = j;
+  }
+
+  for (std::size_t i = 1; i <= aSize; ++i) {
+    current[0] = i;
+    for (std::size_t j = 1; j <= bSize; ++j) {
+      std::size_t const substitutionCost = (a[i - 1] == b[j - 1]) ? 0 : 1;
+      current[j] = std::min({ previous[j] + 1, current[j - 1] + 1,
+                              previous[j - 1] + substitutionCost });
+    }
+    previous.swap(current);
+  }
+
+  return previous[bSize];
+}
+
+std::string cmFindClosestString(cm::string_view input,
+                                std::vector<std::string> const& candidates)
+{
+  if (candidates.empty()) {
+    return std::string();
+  }
+
+  std::string best;
+  std::size_t bestDistance = std::numeric_limits<std::size_t>::max();
+  for (std::string const& candidate : candidates) {
+    std::size_t const distance = cmLevenshteinDistance(input, candidate);
+    if (distance < bestDistance) {
+      bestDistance = distance;
+      best = candidate;
+    }
+  }
+
+  // Scale the acceptable edit distance with the input length (roughly one
+  // typo per 5 characters), but keep it within [kMinDistance, kMaxDistance]
+  // so very short inputs still allow one edit and very long inputs don't
+  // start accepting barely-related matches.
+  std::size_t const kMinDistance = 1;
+  std::size_t const kMaxDistance = 4;
+  std::size_t const maxDistance =
+    std::min(kMaxDistance, std::max(kMinDistance, input.size() / 5 + 1));
+  if (bestDistance > maxDistance) {
+    return std::string();
+  }
+
+  return best;
+}
+
 namespace {
 template <std::size_t N, typename T>
 inline void MakeDigits(cm::string_view& view, char (&digits)[N],
diff --git a/Source/cmStringAlgorithms.h b/Source/cmStringAlgorithms.h
index 9e846d5137..23b6b82601 100644
--- a/Source/cmStringAlgorithms.h
+++ b/Source/cmStringAlgorithms.h
@@ -64,6 +64,13 @@ std::string cmRemoveQuotes(cm::string_view str);
 /** Escape quotes in a string.  */
 std::string cmEscapeQuotes(cm::string_view str);
 
+/** Compute the Levenshtein distance between two strings.  */
+std::size_t cmLevenshteinDistance(cm::string_view a, cm::string_view b);
+
+/** Return the closest candidate string to the given input.  */
+std::string cmFindClosestString(cm::string_view input,
+                                std::vector<std::string> const& candidates);
+
 /** Joins elements of a range with separator into a single string.  */
 template <typename Range>
 std::string cmJoin(Range const& rng, cm::string_view separator)
diff --git a/Tests/CMakeLib/testStringAlgorithms.cxx b/Tests/CMakeLib/testStringAlgorithms.cxx
index 8a3167749c..0739fa08e8 100644
--- a/Tests/CMakeLib/testStringAlgorithms.cxx
+++ b/Tests/CMakeLib/testStringAlgorithms.cxx
@@ -313,5 +313,36 @@ int testStringAlgorithms(int /*unused*/, char* /*unused*/[])
               "cmStrLen returns length of empty literal string");
   }
 
+  // ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+  // Test cmLevenshteinDistance
+  {
+    assert_ok(cmLevenshteinDistance("", "") == 0,
+              "cmLevenshteinDistance empty strings");
+    assert_ok(cmLevenshteinDistance("abc", "abc") == 0,
+              "cmLevenshteinDistance identical strings");
+    assert_ok(cmLevenshteinDistance("", "abc") == 3,
+              "cmLevenshteinDistance empty vs non-empty");
+    assert_ok(cmLevenshteinDistance("abc", "") == 3,
+              "cmLevenshteinDistance non-empty vs empty");
+    assert_ok(cmLevenshteinDistance("toolchain", "tolchain") == 1,
+              "cmLevenshteinDistance single deletion");
+    assert_ok(cmLevenshteinDistance("kitten", "sitting") == 3,
+              "cmLevenshteinDistance words");
+  }
+
+  // ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+  // Test cmFindClosestString
+  {
+    std::vector<std::string> const candidates = { "--build", "--install",
+                                                  "--toolchain",
+                                                  "--install-prefix" };
+    assert_string(cmFindClosestString("--toolchan", candidates), "--toolchain",
+                  "cmFindClosestString finds close match");
+    assert_string(cmFindClosestString("--totally-unrelated", candidates), "",
+                  "cmFindClosestString rejects distant strings");
+    assert_string(cmFindClosestString("anything", {}), "",
+                  "cmFindClosestString empty candidates");
+  }
+
   return failed;
 }