Which to use
“chia” and “chink” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,150
- “chia” frequency rank
- #46,376
- “chink” frequency rank
- 74526
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chia | chink |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A Mexican sage grown for its edible seeds, Salvia hispanica. | A narrow opening such as a fissure or crack. |
Where the eye mixes chia and chink
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chia runs 4 letters (CCVV) against chink's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between chia and chink
A purely visual mix-up. chia (/ˈt͡ʃiː.ə/) and chink (/t͡ʃɪŋk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74526, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chia is recorded at frequency rank #28,150, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃiː.ə/. chink is at rank #46,376, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɪŋk/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 74526, this pair ranks #36,083 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of chia vs chink
Shared letters: chi. Private to "chia": a. Private to "chink": kn.
"chia" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "chink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "chia" and "chink" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "chia" or "chink" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "chia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #36,083 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chia" and "chink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chibi vs chink". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #36,083 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.