When to use it
The word frequency counter lists how often every word or phrase appears in a text. Writers use it to spot overused words, students to check an essay doesn’t repeat itself, marketers to see which terms a page focuses on, researchers to analyse interview transcripts or survey answers, and language learners to find the most common words in a book or article.
How to count word frequency
- Paste your text into Your text.
- Choose options: Hide common words (the, and, of…) and Include numbers.
- Choose Phrases of: 1 word, 2 words or 3 words.
- Read the table: rank, Word, Count and Share of all counted words.
- Press Download CSV to save the full list.
A worked example
You’ve written a 900-word cover letter and it feels repetitive. Paste it in: the top words are “team” (14 times), “passionate” (6) and “experience” (9). Switching to 2 words shows “I am” 11 times and “team player” 4 times. You swap some “team”s for specifics, cut “passionate” to one use, and vary sentence openings. The letter reads more confidently, and the counts confirm the repetition is gone.
Useful ways to read the results
- Top words show the theme. If your main topic isn’t near the top, your text may be unfocused.
- Repeated adjectives like “great”, “amazing” or “really” are easy to trim.
- Two- and three-word phrases reveal stock phrases and filler.
- Survey answers: frequent words show what many people mention.
Tips
- Hide common words for content analysis; show them when checking writing style.
- Compare drafts: run the old and new versions to see what changed.
- Use the CSV to sort, filter or chart results in a spreadsheet.
- For SEO, check the Keyword Density Checker, which also looks at keyword placement.
For language learners
Paste a chapter or article you’re reading and keep common words visible. The top 100 or so words often make up half of any text, so learning them first gives the biggest boost to understanding.
Common mistakes
- Treating every repeat as bad. Key terms and names naturally repeat.
- Analysing very short text, where counts aren’t meaningful.
- Forgetting that “run” and “running” count separately, because the tool counts exact words.
Private by design
Your text is analysed in your browser and never uploaded.
Related tools
Check keyword use for SEO with the Keyword Density Checker, count words with the Word Counter, or measure readability with the Readability Checker.