Average Word Length Calculator
Find the average word length of any text in letters per word. The average word length calculator also shows the median, your longest words and how many words have 1, 2, 3 or more letters, and compares your average with typical English, about 4.8 letters per word.
- Letters per word
- Length distribution
- Compared with English
Word length distribution
How many of your words have 1, 2, 3 or more letters, with examples from your text.
| Letters | Words | Share | Examples |
|---|
The length distribution appears here.
Longest words
Your 50 longest different words. Long words are where a simpler choice often helps.
| Word | Letters | Times used |
|---|
Your longest words appear here.
How to calculate average word length
Getting the average word length of a text takes a few seconds.
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Paste your text
An essay, an article, a book chapter or a single sentence. The average updates as you type.
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Read the average
Average letters per word, average characters per word, the median length and how your text compares with typical English.
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See the detail
A table shows how many words have each length, with examples, and another lists your 50 longest words, the first place to look for simpler choices.
“I am happy today” has 13 letters in 4 words, an average word length of 3.25 letters.
Average word length formula
Average word length is the total number of letters divided by the number of words.
Average word length = total letters ÷ number of words
- Total letters
- Letters in all the words, without spaces, punctuation or numbers
- Number of words
- Every word that contains at least one letter
Short sentence
“I am happy today”: 1 + 2 + 5 + 5 = 13 letters ÷ 4 words
3.25 letters
With an apostrophe
“Don’t stop”: 4 + 4 = 8 letters ÷ 2 words
4.00 letters
Characters per word also counts apostrophes and hyphens inside words, so “don’t” is 4 letters but 5 characters.
What is the average word length in English?
In Peter Norvig’s count of the Google Books corpus, about 744 billion words, the average English word is 4.79 letters long. That figure counts every use of a word, so very common short words such as the, of, and and to pull it down.
Everyday writing usually lands close to that figure. Technical, legal and academic writing tends to be higher, because it uses more long, specific terms. Writing for children, conversation and simple instructions is usually lower.
What your average word length tells you
Use these ranges as a rough guide, alongside sentence length and the reading score.
| Average | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| Under 4.3 letters | Short, everyday words. Typical of conversation, stories and writing for young readers. |
| 4.3 – 5.2 letters | Close to the English average of 4.79. Typical of news, blogs and general writing. |
| 5.2 – 6 letters | Longer words than usual. Common in academic, business and technical writing. |
| Over 6 letters | Heavy on long words. Check whether shorter, familiar words would work as well. |
Average word length and readability
Long words aren’t wrong, but readers process short, familiar words faster. Readability formulas measure word difficulty in different ways: the Flesch scores use syllables per word, and others use letters per word. Either way, a higher average usually means a harder text.
To make a text easier to read:
- Swap long words for familiar ones where they mean the same: use for utilise, start for commence, help for facilitate.
- Keep the long words that matter. A precise technical term is often the clearest word there is.
- Check sentence length too. Long sentences make a text harder than long words do; the Sentence Counter shows yours.
The Syllable Counter gives your Flesch Reading Ease and grade level.
Average word length and character limits
Average word length is also how word counts are turned into character counts. With 4.79 letters per word plus a space and some punctuation, an English word takes up roughly 6 characters, so a 280-character post fits around 45–50 words. The Characters to Words Calculator does this conversion for you, in either direction.
Average word length FAQ
How do you calculate average word length?
Count the letters in every word, then divide by the number of words. 120 letters in 25 words gives an average word length of 4.8 letters.
What is the average word length in English?
About 4.79 letters per word, based on Peter Norvig’s analysis of the Google Books corpus. Technical and academic texts usually average more; conversation and writing for children less.
Are spaces and punctuation counted?
No. Letters per word ignores spaces, punctuation and numbers. Characters per word keeps apostrophes and hyphens inside words.
Are numbers included?
No. Numbers like 2026 have no letters, so they’d pull the average down. Only words with at least one letter are measured.
What does “Count each word once” do?
It averages the length of your different words rather than every use of them, so a short word repeated many times doesn’t lower the result.
What is the median word length?
The middle value when all your word lengths are sorted. It’s less affected by a few very long words than the average.
Is my text uploaded?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
Sources and references
- English Letter Frequency Counts: Mayzner Revisited, Peter Norvig
- How to write in plain English, Plain English Campaign
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