The roles of miRNAs in the onset of hearing and deafness are beginning to be revealed. Although there has been no reported link between chloride intracellular channel 5 (CLIC5) and the miR-183 family to date, we here present evidence that they are co-expressed in the inner ear and have functions that are related to stereocilia. Moreover, CLIC5 contains a single predicted and highly conserved miR-96/-182 binding site within its 3'-UTR. Our current results further show that miR-96/-182 and CLIC5 are co-expressed in HEI-OC1 cells, in which two isoforms of the CLIC5 protein exist. Furthermore, miR-96 and miR-182 were found to be specifically overexpressed in HEI-OC1 cells into which mimics of these molecules had been transfected by liposomes causing the downregulation of CLIC5 at both the mRNA and protein levels. Finally, miR-96/-182 specifically downregulate the expression of the luciferase reporter gene which was cloned into a mouse CLIC5 3'-UTR fragment containing the wild-type miR-96/-182 target sequence. Our findings thus suggest that CLIC5 is directly regulated by miR-96 and miR-182 and that the target sequence in this regard is located between nucleotides 760-766 within the CLIC5 3'-UTR.