Which to use
“ching” and “chink” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,790
- “ching” frequency rank
- #46,376
- “chink” frequency rank
- 64166
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ching | chink |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A pair of small bowl-shaped finger cymbals made of thick and heavy bronze, used in the music of Thailand and Cambodia. | A narrow opening such as a fissure or crack. |
Where the eye mixes ching and chink
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ching and chink follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: ching vs chink
A purely visual mix-up. ching (/ˈt͡ʃɪŋ/) and chink (/t͡ʃɪŋk/) 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 a single letter - g in “ching” becomes k in “chink”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64166, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ching is recorded at frequency rank #17,790, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɪŋ/. chink is at rank #46,376, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɪŋk/.
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 64166, this pair ranks #79,138 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ching vs chink
Shared letters: chin. Private to "ching": g. Private to "chink": k.
"ching" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "chink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ching" for "chink" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ching" vs "chink" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ching" and "chink" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ching" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,138 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ching" and "chink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chibi vs chink". 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 #79,138 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.