Syllable Counter & Haiku Checker
Syllables by sound, line by line — with a 5-7-5 check for haiku.
Each line is counted on its own; a blank line starts a new stanza.
e.g. 8 6 8 6 or 8.6.8.6, or one number such as 10 for every line.
Line by line
Select a word to see its syllables and stress. Dotted underline = estimated (not in the dictionary).
Word
About the Syllable Counter & Haiku Checker
Type or paste a word, a poem or song lyrics and get the number of syllables in every word and every line. Counts come from the Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary (about 125,000 words and names), which records how words are actually said — so “fire” is 1 or 2 syllables, “poem” is 2 and “science” is 2, where spelling rules often get them wrong. Words that are not in the dictionary are estimated with rules and marked, numbers are read out (“2026” → “twenty twenty-six”) and initialisms are spelled (“FBI” → 3).
Choose Haiku (5-7-5), Tanka (5-7-5-7-7), Cinquain (2-4-6-8-2) or your own pattern, and every line is checked against it — including lines that fit only with another accepted pronunciation. Select a word to see its syllable split, the stressed syllable and its dictionary pronunciation.
How to use it
- Type or paste your text. Each line is counted separately; a blank line starts a new stanza.
- Choose the form to check: Count only, Haiku, Tanka, Cinquain or Custom (type a pattern such as
8 6 8 6or8.6.8.6, or one number such as10for every line). - Read the count next to each line. A tick means it fits; “or 6” means a word can be said with one syllable more or fewer.
- Select any word to see its syllables, stress and pronunciation. Copy with counts copies your text with the count after each line.
Examples
Morning tea grows cold rain on the window, the cat counts drops one by one
Morning tea grows cold (5) · rain on the window, the cat (7) · counts drops one by one (5) — fits 5-7-5
poem · science · cooperate · rhythm · fire
poem 2 · science 2 · cooperate 4 · rhythm 2 · fire 2 (or 1)
computer
3 syllables · kuhm-PYOO-tur · stress x / x · K AH0 M P Y UW1 T ER0
Capitals mark the stressed syllable; “/” is stressed and “x” unstressed, as in scansion.
1999 · 2026 · 21st · 3.5
nineteen ninety-nine 5 · twenty twenty-six 5 · twenty-first 3 · three point five 3
Common uses
- Writing and checking haiku, tanka and cinquains for a class, a contest or social media.
- Fitting song lyrics to a melody, line by line, or matching the syllables of a translated verse.
- Checking the meter of a line of verse — ten syllables and an iambic stress pattern for a sonnet.
- Teaching syllables, stress and phonics with real dictionary pronunciations.
How syllables are counted
A syllable is a vowel sound. The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (cmudict 0.7b) spells every word in phonemes — computer is K AH0 M P Y UW1 T ER0 — and each vowel phoneme carries a stress digit (1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 none), so counting syllables means counting vowel phonemes. When the dictionary lists several pronunciations, the first one is used for the count and the range is shown: every is 3 in the dictionary’s first pronunciation (EV-ur-ee) and 2 in its second (EV-ree), and a line that fits with either is accepted, marked “with another pronunciation”.
For words the dictionary does not have — new words, brand names, rare spellings — the count is an estimate from spelling rules (the open-source syllable library) and the word is marked with a dotted underline. Hyphenated words add up their parts, possessives add a syllable after a hissing sound (James’s = 2), numbers are read the way people say them (80s = “eighties”, 2; 3.5 = “three point five”, 3; 1,00,000 = “one lakh”, 2), and short words in capitals that are not in the dictionary, or capitals without a vowel, are spelled out letter by letter (GST = 3, HTML = 4); longer ones with vowels, such as COVID, are estimated as words.
Syllable splits and stress
Splits follow the sounds, not the spelling: consonants between two vowels start the next syllable as far as English allows a syllable to start with them (the maximum onset principle — extra is EK-struh, not EKS-truh), except that a stressed short vowel keeps the consonant after it (happy is HAP-ee). The respelling uses everyday letters — uh for the unstressed “schwa”, oo as in food, y/igh for the vowel of time — with the stressed syllable in CAPITALS.
The stress pattern uses scansion marks: / stressed, \ secondary stress, x unstressed. One-syllable words take the stress the dictionary gives them on their own; in a sentence, small words such as the, of or and are usually unstressed, so read the pattern of a line with that in mind.
The forms
- Haiku — three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables, the form as it is usually taught in English. (Japanese haiku count on, sound units that are not exactly syllables.)
- Tanka — five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7.
- Cinquain — five lines of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 (Adelaide Crapsey’s American cinquain).
- Custom — any list of numbers, one per line, checked stanza by stanza; a single number applies to every line (
10for iambic pentameter,8 6 8 6for common metre).
Limitations
- English only, and American pronunciation (the CMU dictionary records North American English). Some words have fewer or more syllables in other accents — flower, hour and poem are common examples.
- Estimates for words outside the dictionary are usually right but can be off by one; check the words with a dotted underline.
- Japanese haiku are counted in on (morae), which this tool does not do; it counts English syllables.
- Stress for one-syllable words is taken from the dictionary entry for the word on its own, not from the sentence.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. Downloads the pronunciation dictionary (about 340 KB, plus 500 KB for rare words) from MySmartCoPilot once; your text stays on your device.
Frequently asked questions
How many syllables are in a haiku?
In English, a haiku is usually written as three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables — 17 in total. Choose Haiku and each line is checked against that pattern.
Why does a word show two counts, such as “2 (or 1)”?
Some words have more than one accepted pronunciation — fire (FY-ur or FIRE), every (EV-ur-ee or EV-ree), temperate. The dictionary’s first pronunciation gives the main count, and a line that fits the pattern with the other one is accepted too.
Why is my count different from another syllable counter?
Many counters guess from spelling, which gets words such as poem, science or cooperate wrong. This one looks words up in a pronunciation dictionary first; words it has to guess are marked with a dotted underline.
Can it check iambic pentameter?
It can check the syllable count (choose Custom and type 10) and shows the dictionary stress of every word, which helps you see the da-DUM rhythm. It does not decide whether a line scans — small words are often stressed or unstressed by context.
Does it work for other languages?
No. The dictionary and the spelling rules are for English; words in other scripts are marked as not counted.
Is my poem uploaded?
No. The dictionary is downloaded to your browser once, and every word is looked up on your device.