Syllable Counter
Syllables per word, per line and in total, with a check against a line pattern such as 5-7-5 for haiku or 10 for iambic pentameter, and the longest words.
Total syllables, words and lines, each line with its count against the target, every word with its syllables, the average per word, polysyllables, the longest word and whether the pattern is met.
Example: "An old silent pond / A frog jumps into the pond / Splash! Silence again." counts 5, 7 and 5 — a haiku; "Beautiful chocolate cat" has 3 + 3 + 1 syllables, two polysyllables.
Vowel groups,
with the English exceptions.
How syllables are estimated, how the line pattern is checked, and where the estimate can be off.
The heuristic
Each word is counted by its groups of vowels (a e i o u y), with two English spelling rules: a silent final -e is dropped (make, one syllable) unless the word ends in a vowel + e (free), and -le after a consonant keeps its own syllable (table, two); words of three letters or fewer count one. It is the same routine the Readability Score page uses for Flesch and Flesch–Kincaid, so the two pages agree. Numbers and symbols count zero.
Line patterns
Give a pattern such as 5-7-5 and each line is compared to its target in turn, repeating the pattern for longer poems; a single number applies to every line (10 for iambic pentameter, 8 for common metre). Lines off target are listed with their counts; blank lines are ignored.
Where it can be off
English spelling does not mark syllables, and dictionaries disagree on words like fire, poem, every, chocolate and family, and endings such as -ed (jumped) or -es (wishes) are counted as written, so expect ±1 on such words. Accented and non-Latin words are counted by vowel groups only. For a line that matters, read it aloud. Nothing leaves the browser; the same four anonymous usage counts as the rest of the site apply.
SOURCES
- Vowel-group heuristic with two English spelling rules (silent final -e dropped, -le kept) shared with the Readability Score page; an estimate, ±1 on irregular words
Last reviewed 22 September 2026. How results are checked: How we verify.