chingvschinsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,790
“ching” frequency rank
#42,057
“chins” frequency rank
59847
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ching chins
Definition A pair of small bowl-shaped finger cymbals made of thick and heavy bronze, used in the music of Thailand and Cambodia. plural of chin

Where the eye mixes ching and chins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ching
5 ch
chins

Look-alike desk: ching vs chins

A purely visual mix-up. ching (/ˈt͡ʃɪŋ/) 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 differ by a single letter - g in “ching” becomes s in “chins”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59847, 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/. 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 59847, this pair ranks #103,742 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ching vs chins

Shared letters: chin. Private to "ching": g. Private to "chins": s.

"ching" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "chins" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chingcching · chhing · chign · chingg · chinng · chnig · cihng · hcing
  • chinscchins · chhins · chinns · chinss · chisn · chnis · cihns · hcins

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ching" for "chins" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈt͡ʃɪŋ/ versus /t͡ʃɪnz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ching" vs "chins" - which ranks higher?
"ching" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,790 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 "ching" and "chins" 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 "chins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,742 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ching" 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 #103,742 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