Other forms: claims, claimed, claiming
To claim something is to state it as a fact, or to ask for something you say is yours by right. He claims he was at home all evening. She claimed the last seat by dropping her coat on it.
The noun does both jobs, and the first comes with a warning attached. A claim is a statement someone puts forward as true, and the word quietly signals doubt: write the company says its paint is safe and you are neutral, write the company claims its paint is safe and you have told the reader where you stand. The other claim is money. You claim on your insurance after a flood, you make a claim for expenses, you claim benefits, and lost property offices are full of bags nobody ever claimed. Newspapers use it for deaths — the fire claimed four lives. Follow the verb with that or with to: he claims that he saw it, he claims to have seen it.
1verbassertTo state something as true, with a hint that it may not be.~27%
“He claims he never received the letter.”
2verbclaimTo ask for something you are entitled to.~13%
“You can claim the money back from your insurer.”
3nounlogicA statement put forward as true.~26%
“The claim has never been tested in court.”
synonyms: assertion
4noundemandA formal demand for money you are owed.~34%
“Her claim was settled within a month.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 143 sentences found in the wild and placed 143 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Behind claim is Latin clamō, to call out, from a root that means simply to shout. To claim a thing was to call it out loud, in front of everyone, so that all heard whose it was. The same call is inside exclaim and proclaim.
Proto-Indo-European
*kelh₁- — to shout
Latin
clamo — to call, cry out
Old French
clamer — to call, name, send for
Middle English
claimen
English, today
claim
From Middle English claimen, borrowed from Old French clamer (“to call, name, send for”), from Latin clamo (“to call, cry out”), from Proto-Indo-European kelh₁- (“to shout”), which is imitative of the sound. 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 (“to call, convoke”), κλέδον (“report, fame”), κέλαδος (“noise”), mga cailech (“cock”), Latin calō (“to call out, announce solemnly”), Sanskrit उषःकल (“cock”) literally “dawn-calling”. Cognate with Spanish llamar and clamar.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA