chimpvschinsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#30,731
“chimp” frequency rank
#42,057
“chins” frequency rank
72788
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chimp chins
Definition Clipping of chimpanzee. plural of chin

Where the eye mixes chimp and chins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chimp
5 ch
chins

Visual trap between chimp and chins

A purely visual mix-up. chimp (/t͡ʃɪmp/) and chins (/t͡ʃɪnz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72788, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chimp is recorded at frequency rank #30,731, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɪmp/. chins is at rank #42,057, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɪnz/.

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 72788, this pair ranks #41,846 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chimp vs chins

Shared letters: chi. Private to "chimp": mp. Private to "chins": ns.

"chimp" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "chins" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chimpcchimp · chhimp · chimmp · chimpp · chipm · chmip · cihmp · hcimp
  • chinscchins · chhins · chinns · chinss · chisn · chnis · cihns · hcins

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chimp" for "chins" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃɪmp/ versus /t͡ʃɪnz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chimp" or "chins"?
"chimp" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,731 in our English list, against #42,057 for "chins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "chimp" and "chins" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chimp" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,846 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chimp" and "chins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chins vs chums". 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 #41,846 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