Which to use
“chime” and “chives” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,111
- “chime” frequency rank
- #45,841
- “chives” frequency rank
- 69952
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chime | chives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A musical instrument producing a sound when struck, similar to a bell (e.g. a tubular metal bar) or actually a bell. Often used in the plural to refer to the set: the chimes. | plural of chive |
Where the eye mixes chime and chives
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. chime runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against chives's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses chime with chives
A purely visual mix-up. chime (/tʃaɪm/) and chives (/t͡ʃaɪvz/) 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 69952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chime is recorded at frequency rank #24,111, classified as anoun, pronounced /tʃaɪm/. chives is at rank #45,841, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃaɪvz/.
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 69952, this pair ranks #52,488 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of chime vs chives
Shared letters: cehi. Private to "chime": m. Private to "chives": sv.
"chime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "chives" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chime" and "chives" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "chime" or "chives" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "chime" and "chives" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chime" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #52,488 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chime" and "chives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chimed 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 #52,488 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.