Count syllables across your text. Sortable per‑word table with highlighting of 3+ and 4+ syllable words.
Use the syllable counter to debug other readability scores (especially Flesch and Gunning Fog), to write song lyrics or poetry to a metre, or to evaluate text for children where word complexity is critical.
For exact syllable counts of single words, a dictionary is more reliable. Our counter is optimised for bulk analysis of running text where ~95% accuracy is more useful than per-word perfection.
This tool uses a vowel-group heuristic with handling for silent endings, the "-le" rule, and common irregular words.
Accuracy is around 95% for typical English text. Highly unusual spellings or non-English words will be approximated.
Sort the per-word table to find polysyllabic outliers in your writing.
We use a vowel-group heuristic with handling for silent endings (e.g., "the", silent "e"), the "-le" suffix, and common irregular words. Accurate to within ~5% for typical English text.
Yes, but with reduced accuracy. The syllable counter falls back to a vowel-cluster heuristic that works across many languages.
Polysyllabic words are a primary driver of reading difficulty in formulas like Flesch and Gunning Fog. Highlighting them shows at a glance which words make a passage harder and where to simplify.
Automated counting relies on spelling patterns and vowel groupings, so it can miss silent vowels, regional pronunciations, or words like 'fire' that some people say as one syllable and others as two. Treat counts as a close estimate rather than an exact dictionary value.
Input
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants make food.
Output
17 syllables across 9 words — average 1.89 syllables/word.
"Photosynthesis" alone is 5 syllables, accounting for nearly a third of the total. Polysyllabic outliers like this are exactly what readability formulas penalise.
% content words vs. function words.
analysisVocabulary variety — type‑token ratio.
analysisHighlight passive sentences in your writing.
analysisSentence length stats and variety score.