How to count word frequency
- Paste your text: an essay, article, transcript, survey answers or a book chapter.
- Every word is counted and listed from most to least frequent, with its share of the total.
- Hide common words such as "the" and "and" if you want to focus on meaningful words, or switch to two- and three-word phrases.
Why count word frequency?
Writers use frequency counts to catch overused words: everyone has favourites, like "really", "just" or "very", that creep into every paragraph. Students check that essays do not repeat the same term too often, and editors look for repetitive openings. Researchers and analysts count words in interviews, open survey responses, reviews and speeches to see which themes come up most, a first step in text analysis.
Counting is case-insensitive, so "The" and "the" are combined, and punctuation is ignored. Common stop words are included by default for an exact count; tick the option to hide them for a list of content words. Two-word and three-word phrases reveal repeated expressions such as "in order to". For SEO checks with keyword density percentages, see our Keyword Density Checker, which uses the same engine with search-focused defaults.
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FAQ
Are "Word" and "word" counted together?
Yes. Counting ignores case.
Can I ignore words like "the" and "and"?
Yes. Tick the option to hide common stop words.
How do I count word frequency in Excel?
It needs formulas or pivot tables; pasting the text here is much faster.