chine
/t͡ʃaɪn/noun, verb
chine is spelled C-H-I-N-E: 5 letters. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 51,738th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, chine means “The top of a ridge” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of chine is chines.
How many letters and syllables are in chine?
| Letters | 5: C-H-I-N-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 51,738th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is chine?
Chine appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 51,738th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce chine?
- /t͡ʃaɪn/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-chine.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with chine
Also written: chime.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with chine?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as chine.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: niche.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of chine
- chines plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- chimb
- chime
- chining participle, present
- chined participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does chine mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The top of a ridge.
- 2
The spine of an animal.
- 3
A piece of the backbone of an animal, with the adjoining parts, cut for cooking.
- 4
The back of the blade on a scythe.
- 5
A steep-sided ravine leading from the top of a cliff down to the sea.
- 6
The edge or rim of a cask, etc., formed by the projecting ends of the staves; the chamfered end of a stave.
- 7
A hollowed or bevelled channel in the waterway of a ship's deck.
- 8
A sharp angle in the cross section of a hull.
- 9
A longitudinal line of sharp change in the cross-section profile of the fuselage or similar body.
verb
- 1
To cut through the backbone of; to cut into chine pieces.
- 2
To chamfer the ends of a stave and form the chine.
- 3
obsoleteTo crack, split, fissure, break.
The wayward son did chine his father's heart.
adjective
- 1
Mottled in appearance, from the warp being dyed in different colours, or from threads of different colours twisted together.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Chine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense angle in the hull:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Kimm |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does chine come from?
From Middle English chyne, from Old French eschine, from Frankish *skinu, from Proto-Germanic *skinō. Doublet of shin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).