Chip vs. Flake — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman & Maham Liaqat — Updated on April 15, 2024
Chip is a small piece typically broken off from a larger solid, often used in reference to food or wood; flake is a thin, flat piece that detaches from a surface, like paint or snow.
Difference Between Chip and Flake
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Chips are typically thicker and more substantial pieces that have been intentionally cut or broken off, commonly found in woodworking or in the form of snack foods like potato chips. On the other hand, flakes are usually much thinner and result from a surface layer peeling or shedding naturally, as seen with flaking paint or dandruff.
Chips often have a more irregular shape due to the way they are broken or chipped from a larger piece. Whereas flakes tend to have a more uniform, flat appearance, emphasizing their thinness, such as snowflakes or cereal flakes.
The production of chips, such as wood chips or chocolate chips, usually involves a forceful action, like chopping or breaking, which impacts their size and shape. In contrast, flakes often form through a process of decay or gradual wear, such as soap flakes that slowly disintegrate from the original bar.
Chips can be used as a verb, implying the act of breaking or cutting small pieces off something, enhancing their utility in various contexts. However, flake as a verb typically describes the action of coming off in flat, thin layers, often highlighting a process of separation or disintegration.
In terms of usage, chips are commonly associated with practical purposes, such as mulch or as a component in board manufacturing. Flakes, however, are often associated with more aesthetic or textural uses, such as in decorative finishes or cosmetic products.
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Comparison Chart
Thickness
Thicker, more substantial
Thinner, flat
Shape
Irregular, varied
Uniform, flat
Formation
Forceful breaking/chopping
Natural peeling/shedding
Verb Usage
To break off in pieces
To peel off in layers
Common Uses
Snacks, mulch
Decorative finishes, cereal
Compare with Definitions
Chip
An electronic component in computers and other devices.
The technician replaced the damaged chip on the motherboard.
Flake
A small crystalline form of snow.
Snowflakes began to cover the ground as the temperature dropped.
Chip
A small piece of something removed in the process of chopping, cutting, or breaking.
He used a chisel to create wood chips.
Flake
A type of cereal food made by compressing particles into thin, crisp pieces.
He added milk to his bowl of corn flakes.
Chip
A thin slice of food made crisp by being fried or baked.
She munched on a bag of potato chips.
Flake
A small, thin piece of something, typically one that has broken away from a larger piece.
Paint flakes fell from the aging ceiling.
Chip
A minor flaw or imperfection.
There was a small chip on the edge of the new dinner plate.
Flake
An unreliable person.
He's known to be a flake; he never shows up on time.
Chip
A token used in games or gambling.
He placed a chip on his favorite number at the roulette table.
Flake
To come off in flat, thin layers.
The old barn's paint was flaking off.
Chip
A small broken or cut off piece, as of wood, stone, or glass.
Flake
A flat thin piece or layer; a chip.
Chip
A crack or flaw caused by the removal of a small piece.
Flake
(Archaeology) A stone fragment removed from a core or from another flake by percussion or pressure, serving as a preform or as a tool or blade itself.
Chip
A small disk or counter used in poker and other games to represent money.
Flake
A small piece; a bit.
Chip
Chips Slang Money.
Flake
A small crystalline bit of snow.
Chip
See microchip.
Flake
One who is undependable, as in keeping social engagements.
Chip
A thin, usually fried slice of food, especially a potato chip
Ate chips with her sandwich.
Flake
A somewhat eccentric person; an oddball.
Chip
A very small piece of food or candy
Made cookies with chocolate chips.
Flake
(Slang) Cocaine.
Chip
Chips Chiefly British French fries.
Flake
A frame or platform for drying fish or produce.
Chip
Wood, palm leaves, straw, or similar material cut and dried for weaving.
Flake
A platform lowered over the side of a ship as a scaffold for performing maintenance or repairs.
Chip
A fragment of dried animal dung used as fuel.
Flake
To remove a flake or flakes from; chip.
Chip
Something worthless.
Flake
To cover, mark, or overlay with or as if with flakes.
Chip
(Sports) A chip shot.
Flake
To lay out (a rope or sail, for example) in loose folds.
Chip
A trick method of throwing one's opponent in wrestling.
Flake
To come off in flat thin pieces or layers.
Chip
To chop or cut with an axe or other implement.
Flake
To renege, as on a social engagement
Promised to go to the party but flaked at the last moment.
Chip
To break a small piece from
Chip a tooth.
Flake
To fall asleep or collapse from fatigue or exhaustion
Got home and flaked on the sofa.
Chip
To break or cut off (a small piece)
Chip ice from the window.
Flake
A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything
There were a few flakes of paint on the floor from when we were painting the walls.
Flakes of dandruff
Chip
To shape or carve by cutting or chopping
Chipped her name in the stone.
Flake
A scale of a fish or similar animal
Chip
To implant a microchip in (an organism).
Flake
(archaeology) A prehistoric tool chipped out of stone.
Chip
To become broken off into small pieces.
Flake
(informal) A person who is impractical, flighty, unreliable, or inconsistent; especially with maintaining a living.
She makes pleasant conversation, but she's kind of a flake when it comes time for action.
Chip
(Sports) To make a chip shot in golf.
Flake
A carnation with only two colours in the flower, the petals having large stripes.
Chip
To cheep, as a bird.
Flake
A flat turn or tier of rope.
Chip
A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material.
Flake
A corrupt arrest, e.g. to extort money for release or merely to fulfil a quota.
Chip
A damaged area of a surface where a small piece has been broken off.
This cup has a chip in it.
Flake
A wire rack for drying fish.
Chip
A token used in place of cash.
Flake
(UK) Dogfish.
Chip
A sovereign the coin.
Flake
(Australia) The meat of the gummy shark.
Chip
(electronics) A circuit fabricated in one piece on a small, thin substrate.
Flake
A paling; a hurdle.
Chip
(electronics) A hybrid device mounted in a substrate, containing electronic circuitry and miniaturised mechanical, chemical and/or biochemical devices.
Flake
A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, for drying codfish and other things.
Chip
A fried strip of potato of square or rectangular cross-section; a french fry.
Do you want sauce or mayonnaise on your chips?
Flake
(nautical) A small stage hung over a vessel's side, for workmen to stand on while calking, etc.
Chip
A thin, crisp, fried slice of potato, or sometimes another vegetable; a crisp.
They made their own potato chips from scratch, he ate a tortilla chip, served with a side of apple chips
Flake
(nautical) gloss=turn or coil of cable or hawser
Chip
(sports) A shot during which the ball travels more predominantly upwards than in a regular shot, as to clear an obstacle.
Flake
To break or chip off in a flake.
The paint flaked off after only a year.
Chip
(curling) A takeout that hits a rock at an angle.
Flake
(colloquial) To prove unreliable or impractical; to abandon or desert, to fail to follow through.
He said he'd come and help, but he flaked.
Chip
A dried piece of dung, often used as fuel.
Flake
(technical) To store an item such as rope or sail in layers
The line is flaked into the container for easy attachment and deployment.
Chip
A receptacle, usually for strawberries or other fruit.
Flake
To hit (another person).
Chip
(gastronomy) A small, near-conical piece of food added in baking.
Chocolate chip
Flake
To plant evidence to facilitate a corrupt arrest.
Chip
A small rectangle of colour printed on coated paper for colour selection and matching. A virtual equivalent in software applications.
Flake
To lay out on a flake for drying.
Flake a fish
Chip
(nautical) The triangular piece of wood attached to the log line.
Flake
A paling; a hurdle.
Chip
(historical) Wood or Cuban palm leaf split into slips, or straw plaited in a special manner, for making hats or bonnets.
Flake
A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, for drying codfish and other things.
You shall also, after they be ripe, neither suffer them to have straw nor fern under them, but lay them either upon some smooth table, boards, or flakes of wands, and they will last the longer.
Chip
Anything dried up, withered, or without flavour.
Flake
A small stage hung over a vessel's side, for workmen to stand on in calking, etc.
Chip
(golf) A low shot that travels further along the ground than it does in the air.
Flake
A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything; a film; flock; lamina; layer; scale; as, a flake of snow, tallow, or fish.
Great flakes of ice encompassing our boat.
Chip
(transitive) To chop or cut into small pieces.
The workers chipped the dead branches into mulch.
Flake
A little particle of lighted or incandescent matter, darted from a fire; a flash.
With flakes of ruddy fire.
Chip
(transitive) To break small pieces from.
Be careful not to chip the paint.
Flake
A sort of carnation with only two colors in the flower, the petals having large stripes.
Chip
To play a shot hitting the ball predominantly upwards rather than forwards. In association football specifically, when the shot is a shot on goal, the opposing goalkeeper may be the direct object of the verb, rather than the ball.
Flake
A person who behaves strangely; a flaky{2} person.
Chip
To upgrade an engine management system, usually to increase power.
Flake
A flat layer, or fake, of a coiled cable.
Flake after flake ran out of the tubs, until we were compelled to hand the end of our line to the second mate.
Chip
(intransitive) To become chipped.
This varnish chips easily.
Flake
To form into flakes.
Chip
To ante (up).
Flake
To separate in flakes; to peel or scale off.
Chip
To fit (an animal) with a microchip.
Flake
A crystal of snow
Chip
To contribute.
Everyone needs to chip in £1 for George's leaving collection
Flake
A person with an unusual or odd personality
Chip
(also, to chip at) To make fun of.
Flake
A small fragment of something broken off from the whole;
A bit of rock caught him in the eye
Chip
To cut small pieces from; to diminish or reduce to shape, by cutting away a little at a time; to hew.
Flake
Form into flakes;
The substances started to flake
Chip
To break or crack, or crack off a portion of, as of an eggshell in hatching, or a piece of crockery.
Flake
Cover with flakes or as if with flakes
Chip
To bet, as with chips in the game of poker.
Flake
Come off in flakes or thin small pieces;
The paint in my house is peeling off
Chip
To break or fly off in small pieces.
Chip
A piece of wood, stone, or other substance, separated by an ax, chisel, or cutting instrument.
Chip
A fragment or piece broken off; a small piece.
Chip
Wood or Cuban palm leaf split into slips, or straw plaited in a special manner, for making hats or bonnets.
Chip
Anything dried up, withered, or without flavor; - used contemptuously.
Chip
One of the counters used in poker and other games.
Chip
The triangular piece of wood attached to the log line.
Chip
A small fragment of something broken off from the whole;
A bit of rock caught him in the eye
Chip
A triangular wooden float attached to the end of a log line
Chip
A piece of dried bovine dung
Chip
A thin crisp slice of potato fried in deep fat
Chip
A mark left after a small piece has been chopped or broken off of something
Chip
A small disk-shaped counter used to represent money when gambling
Chip
Electronic equipment consisting of a small crystal of a silicon semiconductor fabricated to carry out a number of electronic functions in an integrated circuit
Chip
A low running approach shot
Chip
The act of chipping something
Chip
Break off (a piece from a whole);
Her tooth chipped
Chip
Cut a nick into
Chip
Play a chip shot
Chip
Form by chipping;
They chipped their names in the stone
Chip
Break a small piece off from;
Chip the glass
Chip a tooth
Common Curiosities
Are all flakes thin?
Yes, flakes are characteristically thin and flat, making them distinct from more substantial chips.
Can both chips and flakes occur naturally?
Chips usually result from deliberate actions, while flakes can occur naturally, as with mica or fish scales.
How do the uses of chips and flakes differ in electronics?
In electronics, chips refer to semiconductor devices, whereas flakes do not have a specific role in this field.
What is the role of chip in computer network?
Chip is an electronic component which used in computers and other IT devices.
What is a common cosmetic use for flakes?
Salicylic acid is the most common agent use for flakes.
What is a typical material for chips?
Chips are commonly made from wood, stone, or food products like vegetables and chocolate.
Which is more likely to be used for decorative purposes?
Flakes are more commonly used for decorative purposes, such as in crafting or makeup.
How do chips differ from flakes in food?
Food chips are often fried or baked to a crisp texture, unlike cereal flakes which are pressed and dried.
What makes flakes ideal for cereal production?
Their flat, thin structure allows for quick drying and easy packaging, making them perfect for cereals.
Can the term 'chip' also refer to a technique?
Yes, chipping is a technique used in carving or cutting materials like wood or stone.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
Co-written by
Maham Liaqat
