Sentence:  Caution needs to be exercised in regards to claims of coinage as the data contained a number of examples of writers <WSD>professing</WSD> the invention of a term that had actually been in existence for many years. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity. (from 16th c.)