claim
/kleɪm/noun, verb
claim is spelled C-L-A-I-M. The wrong spelling people search most is claime: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 909 of all searches for the word. Claim is a noun meaning “A demand of ownership made for something”. The plural of claim is claims.
How many letters and syllables are in claim?
| Letters | 5: C-L-A-I-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 89 times per million words; the 1,191st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, claime, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell claim?
Claim is spelled C-L-A-I-M. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 872 of the searches for claim in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is claim?
Claim appears 89 times per million words in written English, the 1,191st 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 claim?
- /kleɪm/
Claim has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-claim.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with claim?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as claim.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: malic.
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 claim
- claims plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- claym
- claiming participle, present
- claimed participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does claim mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A demand of ownership made for something.
a claim of ownership
- 2
The thing claimed.
- 3
The right or ground of demanding.
You don't have any claim on my time, since I'm no longer your employee.
- 4
A new statement of something one believes to be the truth, usually when the statement has yet to be verified or without valid evidence provided.
The company's share price dropped amid claims of accounting fraud.
- 5
A demand of ownership for previously unowned land.
Miners had to stake their claims during the gold rush.
- 6
A legal demand for compensation or damages.
verb
- 1
To demand ownership of.
- 2
To state a new fact, typically without providing evidence to prove it is true.
- 3
To demand ownership or right to use for land.
- 4
To demand compensation or damages through the courts.
- 5
To be entitled to anything; to deduce a right or title; to have a claim.
- 6
To cause the loss of.
The attacks claimed the lives of five people.
- 7
To win as a prize in a sport or competition.
He claimed $100 after winning the top spot.
- 8
obsoleteTo proclaim.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate claim?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of claim: clm.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Claim in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | réclamation , titre , affirmation , revendication , revendiquer , prétendre |
| German | Anspruch , Rechtstitel , Behauptung , Mutung , beanspruchen , behaupten |
| Portuguese | reivindicação, reclamo , afirmação, alegação , reivindicar , reclamação |
| Spanish | reclamación, reivindicación, pretensión , alegato , concesión , reclamar |
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 claim come from?
From Middle English claimen, borrowed from Old French clamer (“to call, name, send for”), from Latin clāmō, clāmāre (“to call, cry out”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to shout”), which is imitative. See also Lithuanian kalba (“language”), Old English hlōwan (“to low, make a noise like a cow”), Old High German halan (“to call”), Ancient Greek καλέω (kaléō, “to call, convoke”), κλέδον (klédon, “report, fame”), κέλαδος (kélados, “noise”), Middle Irish cailech (“cock”), Latin calō (“to call out, announce solemnly”), Sanskrit उषःकल (uṣaḥkala, “cock”, literally “dawn-calling”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).