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Word by word
Each word and its syllable count appears here as you type.
Syllables
Syllables
0
Words
0
Syllables per word
0
Words with 3+ syllables
0
Haiku check (5-7-5)
Write exactly three lines to check a haiku.
How this counts
Each word is counted with spelling rules and a list of exceptions, not a pronunciation dictionary. On the text of this site's own blog posts, it matched the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary for 98.0% of words as they appear and 95.9% of distinct words. Names, abbreviations and non-English words are often off. Numbers are skipped. Your text stays in your browser.
What counts as a syllable
One vowel sound
A syllable is a beat built around one vowel sound. 'Cat' has one, 'water' has two, 'banana' has three. Silent letters, like the e at the end of 'make', add no beat.
Spelling is a guide, not a rule
English spelling does not map neatly to sound. 'Fire', 'hour' and 'poem' are said with one or two syllables depending on accent, so any counter will disagree with some readers.
Long words
Words of three or more syllables are what the Gunning Fog and SMOG readability formulas count as hard words. A high share of them is one reason text scores as difficult.
Accuracy figures are our own measurement against the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, not a figure published by the dictionary or by the counting library.
Sources
Limits last checked against these sources on 2026-10-19.
Poetry and haiku
Check the 5-7-5 count of a haiku line by line, or the meter of a line of verse before you read it aloud.
Songwriting
Compare the syllables in two lines that share a melody, so the words fit the same number of notes.
Plain writing
See how many long words a draft uses and which ones they are. Swapping a few for shorter words is often the quickest way to make text easier to read.
More tools
Related tools
Syllables feed into readability scores. These tools look at the rest of the text.