chimingvsclaimingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“chiming” and “claiming” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,172
“chiming” frequency rank
#4,065
“claiming” frequency rank
44237
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chiming claiming
Definition present participle and gerund of chime present participle and gerund of claim

Where the eye mixes chiming and claiming

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
chiming
8 ch
claiming

Look-alike desk: chiming vs claiming

A purely visual mix-up. chiming (/ˈt͡ʃaɪmɪŋ/) and claiming (/ˈkleɪmɪŋ/) 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 44237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chiming is recorded at frequency rank #40,172, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃaɪmɪŋ/. claiming is at rank #4,065, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkleɪmɪŋ/.

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 44237, this pair ranks #232,449 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chiming vs claiming

Shared letters: cgimn. Private to "chiming": h. Private to "claiming": al.

"chiming" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "claiming" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chimingcchiming · chhiming · chiimng · chimign · chimingg · chiminng · chimming · chimnig
  • claimingcaliming · cclaiming · claiimng · claimign · claimingg · claiminng · claimming · claimnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chiming" and "claiming" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈt͡ʃaɪmɪŋ/ versus /ˈkleɪmɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "chiming" or "claiming" show up more?
"claiming" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,065 in our English list, against #40,172 for "chiming". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chiming" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "claiming" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #232,449 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chiming" and "claiming" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chiming vs coining". 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 #232,449 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