Syllable Counter

How to use

1. 1Paste a poem, sentence, paragraph, or any block of text into the input on the left. Counts update as you type.
2. 2Watch the Live counts panel for total syllables, total words, lines, average syllables per word, and the most syllabic word in your text.
3. 3Switch Breakdown to Per line for line-restricted forms (haiku, tanka, limerick), to Per word to find which word pushed you over a target, or to Haiku check for an automatic 5-7-5 pass or fail.
4. 4Use Load sample to see a haiku example, Clear to reset the input, or Copy report to grab a plain-text summary you can paste into a doc.
5. 5If a word looks off, say it aloud and clap the beats: heuristic counters agree with dictionaries about 80 to 85 percent of the time, so trust your ear for unfamiliar names and technical terms.

About this tool

Syllable Counter counts the syllables in every word you paste and totals them per line, so you can plan a haiku, fit lyrics to a melody, hit a target reading rhythm, or check pronunciation rhythm for English learners. The algorithm uses the standard linguistic heuristic for English: each run of vowels counts as one syllable, silent trailing 'e' is dropped (except 'le' after a consonant, where 'le' is its own syllable), 'y' counts as a vowel except at the start of a word, 'es' after a sibilant adds a syllable, and 'ed' is silent except after t or d. Hyphenated words are split, counted separately, and summed back together. A small built-in exception list handles common words where the heuristic is famously wrong, so 'every', 'business', 'science', 'poem', and 'reality' all return the count people expect. Three views unpack the result. Per line shows every non-empty line with its word count and syllable total, perfect for line-restricted forms like haiku, tanka, ghazal, and limerick. Per word shows every individual word with its syllable badge, useful for editing a single line or quickly finding the word that pushes you over a target. Haiku check compares the first three non-empty lines against the classic 5-7-5 pattern and tells you whether the poem fits. Counts also include unique-word totals, one-, two-, and three-or-more-syllable word counts, and the most syllabic word in your text. Useful for poets writing haiku, tanka, and other strict-meter forms, lyricists and rappers shaping cadence, ESL learners practicing pronunciation rhythm, English teachers preparing phonics worksheets, copywriters keeping taglines short and snappy, name and brand designers checking how many beats a name takes to say, and accessibility writers tuning content for spoken playback. Pure-browser heuristic counting agrees with English dictionaries on roughly 80 to 85 percent of common words. Counts run entirely on your device, so drafts, lyrics, and unpublished work never leave the browser.

Free to use. Works in your browser. No signup, no login.