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Allin

claim

nounverbcommon in dialogue

  • //kleɪm//

A demand of ownership made for something.

noun

  1. 1

    A demand of ownership made for something.

    a claim of ownership

    a claim of victory

  2. 2

    The thing claimed.

  3. 3

    The right or ground of demanding.

    You don't have any claim on my time, since I'm no longer your employee.

  4. 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.

    Bailey, in using accents, felt that he was 'directing to their proper pronuntiation' and showing 'the Orthoepia of the English Tongue' (title page, Dictionarium Britannicum, 1730 edition). The claim is ridiculous.

    The thing is, we've even had formal confirmation from Government itself that the crucial research required to make such sweeping claims hasn't been done!

  5. 5

    A demand of ownership for previously unowned land.

    Miners had to stake their claims during the gold rush.

  6. 6

    A legal demand for compensation or damages.

Etymology

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”). Cognate with Spanish llamar and clamar.

verb

  1. 1

    To demand ownership of.

    Jeffrey Chuang, an economics student at University College London, said: "I am for independence. I do not think China has any right to claim Taiwan. We have confidence in our country and we know that China is not capable of doing anything to us."

  2. 2

    To state a new fact, typically without providing evidence to prove it is true.

  3. 3

    To demand ownership or right to use for land.

  4. 4

    To demand compensation or damages through the courts.

  5. 5

    To be entitled to anything; to deduce a right or title; to have a claim.

    We must know how the first ruler, from whom any one claims, came by his authority, upon what ground any one has empire

  6. 6

    To cause the loss of.

    The attacks claimed the lives of five people.

    A fire claimed two homes.

  7. 7

    To win as a prize in a sport or competition.

    He claimed $100 after winning the top spot.

  8. 8

    obsoleteTo proclaim.

  9. 9

    archaicTo call or name.

    Nor all, that else through all the world is named[…] / Might like to this be clamed.

Forms

plural
claims
past tense
claimed
past participle
claimed
present participle
claiming
third person singular
claims
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).