Which to use
“chime” is a noun and “crimp” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,111
- “chime” frequency rank
- #46,404
- “crimp” frequency rank
- 70515
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chime | crimp |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Easily crumbled; friable; brittle. |
Where the eye mixes chime and crimp
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chime (CCVCV) and crimp (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: chime vs crimp
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chime is /tʃaɪm/ while crimp is /kɹɪmp/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70515, 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/. crimp is at rank #46,404, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kɹɪmp/.
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 70515, this pair ranks #50,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of chime vs crimp
Shared letters: cim. Private to "chime": eh. Private to "crimp": pr.
"chime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "crimp" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chime" for "crimp" ever safe?
Which is more common, "chime" or "crimp"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "chime" and "crimp" 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 "crimp" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #50,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chime" and "crimp" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crimp vs Crist". 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 #50,283 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.