Easily Confused Words: Chai Vs. Chia - Kathleen W Curry

Chai and chia are easily confused words.

The spell-check application of most word processing software programs would not catch a slip-up of these two words. Spell-check is looking for words that aren’t in its dictionary, and words that resemble words in its dictionary, but are possibly spelled wrong. Spell-check isn’t perfect. It doesn’t know and can’t guess what word you wanted, or what word you meant, it can only judge the words on the page. If you used words that are all spelled correctly, it gives you a pass anyway.

Autocorrect suggests words that start with the same letters. It’s suggesting what word you may want to save time, but quite often, its suggestions are pretty off base. They don’t help you out, but they do make you laugh.

Chai (“ch-eye”; rhymes with guy, fly, why) is a proper noun. It is the name of a very popular tea in India featuring aromatic spices: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger.

Chia (“chee-uh”; rhymes with Mia, Kia) has multiple meanings.

• It means a plant whose seeds are used for protein, fiber, and beneficial fatty acid source in smoothies and other health food.
• As a proper noun, it means a US company making novelty pop culture chia plant pots. The chia plant they grow resembles hair, fur, or other characteristics. Created in the 1970s, they became a pop culture fad in the 1980s.

The following story uses both words correctly:

Chiko was sipping chai tea on a cold, rainy morning. As she pulled out yogurt and other items for breakfast, she realized she was all out of chia seeds and granola.

“Drat!” she said to herself. “I really didn’t want to go out in this weather. What else is in the pantry?”

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