# claim

Pronunciation: say "KLAYM" /kleɪm/

## Verb

1. To state something as a fact, usually without offering evidence that it is true.
   - Simple: To say something is true, usually without giving evidence.
   - _Critics claim the study was rushed, though they cite no specific errors._
   - _The salesman claimed his product could double crop yields overnight._
4. To demand or take something, such as property, land, a title or credit, as rightfully one's own.
   - Simple: To say that something is yours and ask for it or take it, such as land or a right.
   - _Both brothers claim the family farm as their own._
   - _He claimed the reward as soon as he returned the wallet._
6. To win something as a prize in a sport or competition.
   - Simple: To win something as a prize in a game or contest.
   - _The young driver claimed victory in his very first race._
   - _Underdogs can claim the championship with a single upset._
7. To make a formal application for a payment one is owed or entitled to, such as damages, compensation, an insurance payout, benefits or expenses.
   - Simple: To formally ask for money you should get, for example from an insurance company, your employer or a court.
   - _The tenants claim damages for the months without heating._
   - _He claimed full compensation for his lost wages._
8. To cause the loss or destruction of someone or something.
   - Simple: To cause something or someone to be lost or destroyed.
   - _The earthquake claimed thousands of lives within minutes._
   - _Wildfires claim vast stretches of forest every summer._
13. To have a right to something, traced from a person or based on a document such as a will or grant.
   - Simple: To have a right to something through another person or under a legal document, such as a will.
   - _The present owners claim under a land grant that the king made in 1680._
   - _The cousins claimed through their grandmother, the only daughter of the original owner._
10. To require or take up someone's attention, time, effort, or the like, so that it is not easily available for anything else.
   - Simple: To use up time, attention, or effort, so that there is less left for other things.
   - _Caring for an aging parent can claim energy that would otherwise go to work or friends._
   - _Several urgent matters claimed the senator's attention, and the bill was set aside for another month._

## Noun

2. A statement put forward as true, especially one that has not yet been proved or checked.
   - Simple: Something someone says is true, often before anyone has proved it.
   - _The scientist's claim still awaits confirmation from other labs._
   - _Several claims in the article lacked any supporting data._
3. A formal request for money one is owed or entitled to, such as damages, compensation, an insurance payment, benefits or expenses.
   - Simple: A formal request for money you should get, for example from an insurance company or a court.
   - _The claim for damages was settled out of court._
   - _After the flood, she filed an insurance claim to pay for the repairs._
5. A demand that something other than a payment, such as land, a title, a throne or credit, be recognized as rightfully one's own.
   - Simple: A statement that something, such as land, a title, or credit, is rightly yours.
   - _His claim to the inheritance was disputed by his cousins._
   - _Competing claims over the territory led to years of tension._
9. The right or basis on which a demand can be made.
   - Simple: A good reason or right to ask for something.
   - _Her academic record gives her a legitimate claim to the scholarship._
   - _The duke's claim to the throne came through his mother's line._
11. A piece of land, usually public land, that someone formally marks out and registers as theirs to use, especially for mining, or their recorded right to it.
   - Simple: A piece of land, often for mining, that someone marks out and records as theirs to use.
   - _He registered his mining claim at the local office._
   - _After weeks of panning along the creek, the prospector staked a claim on a narrow strip of land and rode into town to register it._
12. The thing itself that has been demanded or taken as one's own, rather than the demand for it.
   - Simple: The thing that someone has said belongs to them.
   - _When the treaty was signed, the empire's claim stretched from the coast to the mountains, though few of its settlers had ever seen most of it._
   - _The rival kingdoms each sent soldiers to guard the edge of their claim, a strip of forest that neither side had ever farmed._

## Verb

14. To announce or proclaim something publicly. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To announce something publicly.
15. To call or name someone or something. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To call someone or something by a name.

## Origin

Goes back to an imitative Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to shout," the source of Latin clāmāre ("to call, cry out"); Old French made this clamer ("to call, name, send for"), and Middle English borrowed it as claimen. Spanish llamar and clamar are relatives.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/claim (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).