GenerateRandomSearch

Text Statistics Generator

Word count is easy; what it hides is more interesting. How many distinct words are there, how long are the sentences on average, and which words dominate? This counts all of that, computes the type-token ratio, and is straightforward about the ratio's weakness: it falls as any text gets longer, so it only compares passages of similar length.

What this generator does

Splits the text into words and sentences, counts distinct words, computes the type-token ratio and the average word and sentence lengths, and tallies the most frequent words. Every figure is recomputed from the text before it is shown.

How to use this tool

  1. Paste the text you want to analyse.
  2. Read the counts and the averages.
  3. Look at the commonest words — they are usually not the interesting ones.
  4. Compare two passages of similar length by their type-token ratio.

Understanding the controls

Your text
Up to twenty thousand characters. Words are runs of letters and apostrophes; sentences end at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.

Common use cases

  • Checking word and sentence counts for a piece
  • Measuring vocabulary variety across two drafts
  • Finding which words dominate a passage
  • Seeing average sentence length before editing for rhythm
  • Producing figures for a writing exercise or a class

How this generator works

Words are matched as runs of letters and apostrophes, so hyphenated compounds count as two and numbers are skipped. Sentences are separated at terminal punctuation, which handles ordinary prose and miscounts abbreviations. The type-token ratio is distinct words over total words. Before display every count is recomputed from the text, the ratio is confirmed to be a fraction between zero and one with distinct words never exceeding total words, and the commonest words are confirmed to be in genuine order.

Randomness and fairness

Nothing here is random. The same text always produces the same figures.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Limitations and good to know

  • Sentence detection splits at full stops, so abbreviations like \u201ce.g.\u201d inflate the sentence count.
  • Words are matched as letter runs, so hyphenated compounds count as two words and numbers are not counted at all.
  • The type-token ratio falls with length whatever the writing is like, so it cannot compare a paragraph against a chapter.
  • These are counts rather than judgements: a low ratio can mean repetitive writing or simply a technical subject with a fixed vocabulary.

Privacy and your data

Your text stays in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, no text is stored, and nothing you paste is ever included in analytics — only the fact that the tool ran.