Sort Words by Length
Sort words by their character length, from shortest to longest or longest to shortest. Useful for crossword prep, vocabulary exercises, puzzle construction, and wordlist organization. Runs in your browser.
How to sort words by length
1. Paste your words
Drop your words into the Input box. They can be one per line, or separated by spaces. The Input mode selector switches between Per line (treats each line as a word, even multi-word phrases) and Per word (splits on whitespace).
2. Pick direction
Shortest first puts 1-letter words at the top and the longest word at the bottom. Longest first reverses that order. Ties (words of equal length) are broken alphabetically by default; turn off Sort by length first or turn on Preserve original order to change tie-breaking.
3. Tune options
Remove duplicates keeps each word once. Ignore case treats Apple and apple as the same word. Show length labels prefixes each word in the output with its character count. Letters only ignores punctuation and digits when measuring length, so "can\'t" is measured as 4 (c, a, n, t) rather than 5.
4. Copy or download
Click Sort by length. The sorted output appears on the right, one word per line. Copy or download as needed.
When you need a length sorter
What counts toward word length
By default, the tool counts every Unicode character in a word. The string "naïve" has 5 characters; "can\'t" has 5 (c, a, n, apostrophe, t); "café" has 4. Most users want this behaviour because it matches what they see in the text.
Letters only mode strips non-letter characters (digits, punctuation, whitespace) before measuring. "can\'t" then measures as 4. "n26" measures as 1. "co-op" measures as 4. Use this mode when you want a strict alphabetic-length metric, common for crossword grids (where punctuation does not occupy a cell) and word-game scoring (where points-per-letter does not include marks).
Compound words and hyphenated phrases are treated as single tokens in Per line mode and split in Per word mode. So "mother-in-law" is one 13-character token in Per line mode (or 11 in Letters only). In Per word mode, it splits to "mother", "in", "law".
Sort options reference
| Input | Settings | Result |
|---|---|---|
| apple, cat, elephant, fig | Per line, asc | cat (3), fig (3), apple (5), elephant (8) |
| The quick brown fox jumps | Per word, asc | The (3), fox (3), brown (5), quick (5), jumps (5) |
| can\'t, won\'t, didnt | Per line, Letters only | cant (4), wont (4), didnt (5) |
| 2025 (digit string) | Letters only on | length = 0, excluded from output |
For alphabetical sorting instead of length-based, use Sort Text. For wordlist generation by pattern, see Word Tips wordlists.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
How do I sort a wordlist by length?
Paste your words into the Input box. Pick whether each line is a word (Per line) or words are separated by spaces (Per word). Choose Ascending (shortest first) or Descending (longest first). The output appears on the right grouped by length.
What is the per-line vs per-word setting?
Per line treats each line as a single word, even if the line contains spaces. Useful for multi-word phrases. Per word splits each line on whitespace and treats each token as a separate word. Useful for prose text where you want to sort individual words.
How are ties broken when words have the same length?
Within each length group, words are sorted alphabetically by default. Turn on Preserve original order to keep ties in their original order. Turn on Ignore case for case-insensitive tie-breaking.
Can I see the length next to each word?
Yes. Turn on Show length labels. Each word in the output is prefixed by its character count: 4: word, 5: words, 7: counted.
What counts as a character?
By default, every Unicode code point counts as one character, including accented letters, CJK characters, and emoji. Turn on Letters only to count only A-Z letters, ignoring punctuation, digits, and spaces inside the word.
Why would I want to sort by length?
Crossword construction (find all 5-letter words in your draft list). Vocabulary teaching (group by length for spelling practice). Wordle and word-game prep (need 5-letter words specifically). Concrete poetry (visual shape). Style auditing (prose with many long words may read as heavy or formal).
How does this differ from a wordlist tool?
A wordlist tool typically filters a dictionary by length or pattern. This tool sorts a list YOU provide. Pair them: use a dictionary tool to find candidate words, paste the candidates here, sort by length to organize.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. Sorting runs in client-side JavaScript. Input and output stay in the browser tab. We have no upload endpoint and we do not log content. See also: Alphabetical Order Sorter. See also: Character Frequency Counter.
More wordcounter.ai tools
Other tools you might find useful.