Adjective Counter
Count adjectives in any text. See each adjective highlighted in context, the adjective-to-word ratio, and the most-used adjectives in your passage. Runs in your browser.
How to use the adjective counter
1. Paste your text
Drop a paragraph, essay draft, blog post, or product description into the text box. The counter scans on every keystroke. Plain text from Word, Google Docs, Slack, email, or markdown all work.
2. Read the headline number
The red total at the top of the sidebar shows total adjectives. Below it sit total words and sentences for context. The adjective-to-word ratio (right under) tells you how dense the descriptive language is.
3. Skim the highlighted output
Every adjective the tool flags is highlighted in red inside the context block. Misses or false positives are inevitable in any rule-based approach; the highlight view makes them obvious so you can adjust your prose by hand.
4. Check the most-used list
The sidebar lists the top 5 adjectives by frequency. If "good", "great", and "nice" dominate, that is a tell: your draft leans on filler adjectives. Swap them for specifics ("a 12-foot ceiling" beats "a great ceiling").
5. Trim the ratio
Strong narrative prose runs around 5 to 10 percent adjectives by word count. Marketing copy can climb to 15 percent. Above 18 percent reads ornate; above 25 percent reads purple. Use the ratio to tune voice between technical and lyrical.
When you need to count adjectives
Essay editing and revision
One of the oldest writing-class rules: "show, don't tell." Heavy adjective stacks are a tell. If your essay paragraph has 4 adjectives per sentence, you are propping up weak nouns and verbs. Use the counter to flag bloated passages, then rewrite with stronger noun-verb pairs. See also: preposition counter. See also: trim your draft.
Product copy and conversion
Landing pages often abuse adjectives ("amazing, powerful, intuitive, beautiful"). Conversion data has shown for years that specific claims outperform vague ones. Run product descriptions through the counter; if "amazing" appears 5 times on a single page, cut it.
Academic writing and style
APA, MLA, and Chicago all favor concise, evidence-based prose. A high adjective density signals subjectivity. For a research paper, target under 8 percent adjective-to-word ratio. For a literature analysis essay, 10 to 15 percent is acceptable.
Resume and cover letter editing
Resumes overload on adjectives ("dynamic, motivated, results-driven, passionate"). Hiring managers skim past them. Run your resume through this counter; if the ratio is above 12 percent, replace adjectives with concrete numbers and verbs ("grew traffic 47%" beats "dynamic marketer").
ESL writing practice
For non-native English writers, the most-used list is a learning aid. If "good" and "nice" top your list, you can see at a glance which vocabulary clusters to expand. Pair this with a thesaurus for descriptive-vocabulary drills.
What this tool counts as an adjective
The detector uses two signals: a curated list of common English adjectives (around 180 high-frequency words) and a suffix-pattern check for words ending in -able, -ible, -ful, -less, -ous, -ive, -ish, -al, -ic, -ary, -ory, -ant, -ent (with a 4-character minimum to avoid false positives like "ant" or "ate"). The detector deliberately excludes -ed and -ing endings because most words with those suffixes are verbs or participles, not pure adjectives; including them inflates the count.
Edge cases the detector handles well:
- Color words (red, blue, green, golden, silver) are in the curated list.
- Comparative and superlative forms (bigger, biggest) are usually missed by the suffix check but the most common roots (big, small, good, bad) are caught via the curated list.
- Compound adjectives (well-known, blue-eyed) split on the hyphen; each part is checked separately.
Edge cases the detector misses:
- Participial adjectives in -ed and -ing (broken window, running water) are excluded deliberately. If you need full POS tagging including participles, use a server-side NLP library like spaCy.
- Numbers as quantifiers (three, several, many) are not counted as adjectives in this tool; they are determiners in modern grammar.
- Proper-noun modifiers (American, Italian) are detected if they end in a recognized suffix but missed if they are pure proper nouns.
Healthy adjective ratios by writing type
Different genres tolerate different adjective densities. Below are benchmark ratios drawn from corpus studies of published writing:
| Writing type | Target ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Technical documentation | 3–5% | Precision-first; adjectives only for required specs. |
| News article | 5–8% | Verbs and concrete nouns carry the story. |
| Literary fiction | 6–10% | Stronger writers (Hemingway, Carver) sit at the low end. |
| Romance / lyrical fiction | 10–15% | Sensory detail is part of the genre. |
| Marketing landing page | 8–14% | Above 14% reads like a press release. |
| Personal essay | 8–12% | Voice-driven; trims help. |
| Product description | 6–10% | Specifics beat adjectives; "12-foot" beats "great-size". |
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Frequently asked questions
What counts as an adjective in this tool?
The tool combines a curated list of around 180 common English adjectives with a suffix-pattern check (-able, -ible, -ful, -less, -ous, -ive, -ish, -al, -ic, -ary, -ory, -ant, -ent with a 4-character minimum). Words ending in -ed and -ing are deliberately excluded because most are verbs or participles, not pure adjectives.
Why isn't 'broken' counted as an adjective?
'Broken' is a past participle that often acts adjectivally (broken window). The detector excludes -ed endings to avoid inflating the count with verb forms. For full participial-adjective detection, you need server-side NLP tagging.
Is the adjective-to-word ratio meaningful?
Yes, within genre. Technical writing sits at 3-5%, journalism at 5-8%, literary fiction at 6-10%, marketing copy at 8-14%. Above 15% suggests overuse. The ratio is a tuning dial, not a fixed target.
Does the tool detect comparative and superlative forms?
It catches the most common roots (big, small, good, bad) via the curated list. Some comparative forms (bigger, biggest, better, worst) are caught if they appear in the list; longer ones (more reasonable, most beautiful) are detected via their root word.
Are color words counted?
Yes. Red, blue, green, yellow, black, white, gray, brown, orange, purple, pink, golden, silver, bright, and dark are all in the curated list.
Does case matter?
No. 'Red' at the start of a sentence and 'red' mid-sentence both count as one adjective. The lookup is case-insensitive.
Could anyone snoop on the text I paste in?
No. The detection runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server. Confidential drafts, internal documents, and unpublished essays stay in this tab.
What's the difference between this and an online grammar checker?
Grammar checkers (Grammarly, ProWritingAid) tag adjectives as part of broader style critique and require sign-in. This counter focuses on one metric - adjective density - with a transparent rule-based detector and no account required. See also: syllable counter.
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