Analysis of the time series obtained with the Doppler backscattering system (Hillsheim et al 2009 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 80 0835070) in the DIII-D tokamak (Luxon 2005 Fusion Sci. Technol. 48 828) shows that intermediate wave number plasma density fluctuations in low confinement (L-mode) tokamak plasmas are chaotic. The supporting evidence is based on the shape of the power spectrum; the location of the signal in the complexity-entropy plane (C-H plane) (Rosso et al 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 154102); and the population of the corresponding Bandt–Pompe (Bandt and Pompe 2002 Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 174102) probability distributions.