childsvschipsTell them apart

Quick tell: childs is a noun, chips is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“childs” is a noun and “chips” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,202
“childs” frequency rank
#5,012
“chips” frequency rank
28214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature childs chips
Definition plural of child third-person singular simple present indicative of chip

Letter map: childs vs chips

Shared letters muted; letters that set childs and chips apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
childs
5 ch
chips

Grammar separator: childs vs chips

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: childs is anoun and chipsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

childs is recorded at frequency rank #23,202, classified as anoun. chips is at rank #5,012, tagged as averb, pronounced /t͡ʃɪps/.

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 28214, this pair ranks #372,829 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of childs vs chips

Shared letters: chis. Private to "childs": dl. Private to "chips": p.

"childs" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "chips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • childscchilds · chhilds · chidls · childds · childss · chillds · chilsd · chlids
  • chipscchips · chhips · chipps · chipss · chisp · chpis · cihps · hcips

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "childs" and "chips" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "childs" is a noun and "chips" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "childs" or "chips"?
"chips" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,012 in our English list, against #23,202 for "childs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "childs" vs "chips" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "childs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #372,829 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "childs" and "chips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "childs vs chives". 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 #372,829 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list