Syllable counter
Type or paste a word, a line or a poem and the counter adds up its syllables, line by line. Counts come from pronunciations in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, where every vowel sound is one syllable; words with two common pronunciations, such as FIRE (2 or 1), show both.
18 syllables in 14 words
- an1
- owl1
- on1
- the1
- oak1
- listens2
- to1
- the1
- falling2
- leaves1
- and1
- counts1
- every3 or 2
- one1
In numbers
| EVERY | 3 or 2 |
|---|---|
| FAMILY | 3 or 2 |
| CHOCOLATE | 2 |
| INTERESTING | 3 or 4 |
| SQUIRREL | 2 |
| BUTTERFLY | 3 |
Why some words have two counts
Syllables are vowel sounds, and people do not all say words the same way. The table above shows words whose count depends on the speaker: EVERY is “ev-ry” or “ev-er-y”, CHOCOLATE is usually two syllables in American English. When the dictionary lists more than one pronunciation we show the first and the alternatives next to it, and use the first in the total.
Syllables are not the same as hyphenation. Dictionaries split words at the end of a line by spelling rules, which often do not match the beats you hear.
Questions people ask
How many syllables are in fire?
Either 2 or 1. The pronunciation dictionary lists FIRE both as one syllable (F AY R) and two (F AY ER), and both are common in American speech. The counter shows the first and notes the other.
How many syllables are in orange?
2 in both listed pronunciations (OR-ange).
How many syllables are in beautiful?
3 (beau-ti-ful).
How many syllables are in a haiku?
A traditional English haiku has 17 syllables in three lines of 5, 7 and 5. Paste the three lines and the counter shows the total for each line.
How accurate is the syllable counter?
For the 117,421 words in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary the count comes from a real pronunciation. Other words are estimated from spelling (vowel groups, silent E, -ED and -ES endings) and marked “estimate”; such estimates can be off by one.
Sources
Updated by Daniel Gavalec. Every number on this page is calculated from our word list by a script – see how the word list is built. Found an error? Tell us.