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Frequency Analysis

How often each word, word pair, character, letter or letter pair appears, with counts, percentages and bars, optionally skipping common words, with the index of coincidence, chi-squared and entropy for breaking ciphers.

About this tool What it's for, how to use it and an example

What it's for

Count how often each word, word pair, character, letter or letter pair appears in some text, with percentages and bars.

  • When you’re checking a piece of writing for overused words.
  • When you’re solving a substitution cipher or a puzzle using letter frequencies.
  • When you’re finding the most common terms in feedback, survey answers or a list of tags.

How to use it

Paste text and choose what to Count and how many results to Show. Set the shortest word to count, and tick Ignore case, Skip common words (the, and, of…) or Count spaces as needed. The results update as you type. Chart these sends the results to Chart Maker, and Copy CSV copies them for a spreadsheet.

Above the table are three figures for telling ciphers apart: the index of coincidence (how likely two letters picked at random are the same: about 0.067 for English or English rearranged, 0.038 for random letters), the chi-squared distance of the letters from English, and the entropy in bits per character.

Example

Paste this with Words selected:

the cat sat on the mat and the cat slept

The tool reports 10 words, 7 different ones. the comes first with 3 (30%), then cat with 2 (20%). Tick Skip common words and the and and drop out.

Good to know

Hyphenated words are counted as separate words, while contractions such as don't stay whole. The common-word list is English only.

Guide: Solving an unknown cipher

Text StatisticsWords, characters, sentences, paragraphs, syllables and more; averages per word, sentence and paragraph; reading, speaking, typing and handwriting times; reading age and five readability scores (Flesch–Kincaid, Gunning fog, SMOG, Coleman–Liau, ARI); and curiosities such as the longest word, most used word, vocabulary variety, adverbs, whether it's a pangram, and how many posts or text messages it would take.List CompareTwo lists in, and out come the items only in the first, only in the second, in both, and in either, each counted once, with counts.NumeralsA number as Roman numerals, in English words (British and American), and in Mayan, Babylonian and other scripts' digits; or a Roman numeral or number in words back to the number.Random PickerPick names from a list, shuffle it, split it into groups, choose random numbers, roll dice in 2d6+3 notation or flip coins, fairly, with your browser's secure random numbers.Anagram SolverRearrange jumbled letters, a name or a phrase into other words and phrases that use every letter, and list every word the letters can make.Crossword HelperType the letters you know and a ? for each one you don't, and see every word that fits; or find words starting with, ending with or containing letters, matching a regular expression, or fitting your Wordle clues.

Private: this tool runs in your browser. Nothing you type, paste or choose leaves this page.

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