Sentence Counter

A sentence normally ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark followed by a space or a new line. This counter uses the browser's Unicode sentence segmenter, which also handles quotation marks, ellipses and closing brackets after the punctuation, and works for many languages besides English.

No automatic counter is perfect. Abbreviations such as "Mr." or "a.m." in the middle of a sentence can occasionally be read as a sentence end, and a heading or list item without punctuation counts as one sentence. For most prose the count is exact; for text full of abbreviations, treat it as a close estimate.

A paragraph is a block of text separated from the next by at least one blank line. A single line break inside a block does not start a new paragraph. This matches how most word processors and content management systems treat pasted text. If your count looks low, your text may use single line breaks between paragraphs; adding a blank line between them will fix it.

Readability research and plain-language guides suggest an average of 15 to 20 words per sentence for general audiences. That is an average, not a cap: mixing short and longer sentences gives writing rhythm. Watch out for:

• Sentences over 30 words. Readers often have to re-read them. Split them at a natural "and", "but" or "which".
• Many very short sentences in a row. They can feel choppy. Join related ideas.
• Paragraphs of one long sentence. Common in legal and academic text, and hard to follow on a phone screen.

The Readability Checker combines sentence length with word length to give a Flesch Reading Ease score.

Some writing tasks set limits in sentences rather than words: summaries, abstracts, ad copy, product bullet points and exam answers. Teachers also use sentence counts to check that students write in complete sentences. Editors use them alongside the Word Counter to judge pacing, since two pieces with the same word count can read very differently if one has twice as many sentences.

If your average is well above the norm for your audience, look at the longest sentence first. Splitting one 45-word sentence into two or three usually improves readability more than trimming many average ones.