Unique Word Counter
Count the unique words in any text and list each different word once. The unique word counter shows how many distinct words you used, how many appear only once, and your unique word ratio (type–token ratio), a quick measure of vocabulary variety.
- Unique word list
- Type–token ratio
- Stays on your device
Unique word list
Each different word once, with how many times you used it and where it first appears.
| # | Word | Times used | First seen at word |
|---|
Your unique words appear here.
How to count unique words
Counting the different words in a text takes three steps with the unique word counter.
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Paste your text
Any length, from a single paragraph to a book chapter. The count updates as you type.
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Set the options
Choose whether Apple and apple count as different words, whether numbers count, and whether to skip common words like “the”.
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Use the list
Every different word appears once, with how many times you used it. Sort it A to Z, by use or by length, or show only words used once, then copy or download it.
The sample has 45 words but only 30 unique words, a unique word ratio of 66.7%. “Day” appears 4 times, and “every” and “small” 3 times each.
Unique words vs total words
Total words counts every word; unique words counts each different word only once.
| Text | Total words | Unique words |
|---|---|---|
| “The cat saw the dog.” | 5 | 4 (the, cat, saw, dog) |
| “Go, go, go!” | 3 | 1 (go) |
| “Apple bought apple farms.” | 4 | 3, or 4 with Match case on |
| The sample paragraph on this page | 45 | 30 |
The longer a text gets, the bigger the gap between total and unique words, because common words keep coming back.
Type–token ratio: how varied is your vocabulary?
The unique word ratio, called the type–token ratio (TTR) in linguistics, compares different words (types) with total words (tokens).
TTR = unique words ÷ total words × 100
- Unique words
- Different words in the text (types)
- Total words
- Every word, counting repeats (tokens)
Sample paragraph
30 unique ÷ 45 total × 100
66.7%
Repetitive chant
1 unique ÷ 3 total × 100
33.3%
TTR falls as a text gets longer, because writers have to reuse common words. Only compare the ratio between texts of a similar length.
What the unique word counter shows
Alongside the unique word count, the tool gives you the numbers that describe your vocabulary.
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#
Unique words
Every different word, counted once.
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1×
Used only once
Words that appear a single time, known in linguistics as hapax legomena.
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Ø
Average uses
Total words divided by unique words: how many times, on average, each word is used.
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A–Z
Sortable list
In order of first appearance, A to Z, most used, longest, or words used once only.
Ways to use a unique word list
A list of distinct words is handy for writing, teaching and data work.
| Use | How the list helps |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary lists | Teachers and learners turn a reading text into a word list to study, sorted A to Z. |
| Essay variety | A low unique word ratio for a text of its length can mean the same words are repeated too often. |
| Song lyrics and poems | See how many different words a song really uses compared with its total length. |
| Removing duplicates | Copy the unique words to get a clean list with every repeat removed. |
| Data cleaning | Find every distinct value, tag or keyword in a pasted list. |
| Translation quotes | Distinct words show how much new vocabulary a document really contains. |
What counts as a unique word
The unique word counter uses the same word rules as the word counter:
- Apostrophes and hyphens stay inside words, so it’s and well-known are one word each, and it’s is different from its.
- Curly and straight apostrophes match, so don’t and don't are one unique word.
- Plurals and verb forms are separate: book and books are two unique words.
- Numbers count as words unless you untick “Include numbers”.
- Case is ignored unless you tick “Match case”.
To see which words you repeat most, sort the list by “Most used first”, or use the Word Frequency Counter for a ranked list with density.
Unique word counter FAQ
What is a unique word?
A word counted once no matter how many times it appears. In “the cat saw the dog”, there are 5 words but 4 unique words, because “the” appears twice.
What is a good type–token ratio?
There’s no single target, because the ratio drops as texts get longer. Compare texts of similar length: the higher ratio has the more varied vocabulary.
How do I remove duplicate words from a list?
Paste the list, then press “Copy unique words”. You get each word once, in the order it first appears, ready to paste anywhere.
Are capitalised words counted separately?
Only if you tick “Match case”. By default, The and the are the same unique word.
What are hapax legomena?
Words that appear only once in a text. The counter shows how many there are, and “Used once only” lists them.
Does it count unique words in other languages?
Yes, in any language that uses spaces between words. Each Chinese or Japanese character counts as one word.
Is my text private?
Yes. The counting happens in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
Sources and references
- Lexical diversity, Wikipedia
- Zipf’s law, Wikipedia
More text analysis tools
- Frequency Word Frequency Counter Rank every word by how often it appears, with counts and density. Open tool
- Distinct Unique Character Counter List every distinct character with its Unicode code point, and check for pangrams. Open tool
- Repeats Duplicate Word Finder Find doubled words like “the the” and words repeated too close together. Open tool
- N-grams Phrase Frequency Counter Find repeated 2- to 5-word phrases (n-grams) and how often each appears. Open tool