About this syllable counter
A syllable is a beat of sound in a word: cat has one, banana has three. Poets count them to fit forms such as haiku and limerick, songwriters to match a melody, and teachers to judge how hard a text is to read. This counter estimates English syllables from vowel groups and the usual silent-letter rules, shows each word split into parts, and totals every line. If your lines follow a known pattern it names it, and it also reports the Flesch reading ease score and grade level, which depend on syllables per word.
How to count syllables
- Enter your text. Type or paste a word, a sentence, or a poem with one line per line. The live count under the heading updates as you type.
- Press Count syllables. The totals and the readability scores appear below the button.
- Read the words and lines. Under Words and lines, every word is split into syllables and colored by how many it has, and the number at the end of the line is its total.
- Check for a pattern. With two or more lines, a note appears when the syllable counts match a haiku, tanka, limerick, cinquain, or sedoka.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is the syllable count?
It is a good estimate, not a dictionary. English spelling has many exceptions, so words such as quiet, rhythm, or created can be off by one. Check important lines by saying them aloud.
Which poetry patterns are detected?
Haiku (5-7-5), tanka (5-7-5-7-7), limerick (8-8-5-5-8), cinquain (2-4-6-8-2), and sedoka (5-7-7-5-7-7). An exact match needs the same number of lines and the same syllables in every line.
What is a close match?
The same number of lines as a pattern, with every line within one syllable of it. It flags poems that are nearly right and may only need one word changed.
How are numbers and punctuation counted?
They are skipped. Only words that contain letters are counted, so 2024 adds no syllables, and apostrophes stay inside a word (don’t is one word). Chinese and Japanese characters are not counted.
What do the reading ease and grade level mean?
Flesch reading ease runs from about 0 (very hard) to 100 and above (very easy), and the grade level is the U.S. school grade needed to follow the text. Both use words per sentence and syllables per word.