Text Shuffler
Paste a list or a block of text and shuffle it randomly. Pick whether you want lines, words, or paragraphs rearranged. Lock a seed if you need to reproduce the same shuffle later, then copy or download the result.
How to shuffle text randomly
1. Paste your input
Drop any list or block of text into the input box. One item per line is the most common format. You can also paste a paragraph if you want to shuffle words, or several paragraphs separated by blank lines for paragraph-level shuffling.
2. Pick a shuffle mode
Lines shuffles each line independently and is the default. Words splits the entire input on whitespace and rearranges every word (useful for shuffling tags, randomizing prompt sets, or building word-cloud test data). Paragraphs splits on blank lines and keeps multi-line entries together; useful for shuffling the order of quiz questions, draft scenes, or anything where each "item" is itself several lines.
3. Optionally lock a seed
The seed field controls the random sequence. Leave it blank and every click of Shuffle produces a different order. Type something into the seed (a word, a date, a number) and the same input plus the same seed always produces the same shuffle. That makes the result reproducible for teaching, testing, or screenshotting.
4. Shuffle and copy
The output appears in the output box live as you change settings. Click Re-shuffle to force a new random order even if the seed is locked. Use Copy or Download .txt to grab the result for use elsewhere.
When you need a text shuffler
Shuffling a list crops up in surprising places. A few of the patterns the shuffler is built for:
Quiz and question randomization
Teachers and trainers preparing question banks paste their question list in and shuffle it once per cohort so no two students get questions in the same order. Use Paragraph mode if questions have multi-line stems.
Playlist and queue randomization
Music platforms shuffle automatically, but content like presentation slides, daily prompts, or social-post drafts often does not. Paste the queue, shuffle, and you have a fresh order.
Game and contest entries
Drawing names, picking a giveaway winner, or assigning Secret Santa pairings: shuffle the names and pick the top N. Lock a seed (today's date works well) so the result is verifiable.
A/B test seed lists
Marketers building cohort lists or sampling test variants paste the master list, shuffle, and split. With a recorded seed, the cohort assignment can be reproduced from the seed alone.
Writing prompts and creativity sets
Shuffle a set of prompt words or scene ideas before each writing session for unexpected combinations. Word mode is the right mode for short tokens.
Seedable shuffles: when and why to lock a seed
A seed is a short string (word, number, anything) that tells the random number generator where to start. Same seed + same input = same output, every time. That tiny property unlocks a lot of practical uses.
Lock a seed when the shuffle has to be reproducible: classroom assignments shared between teachers, contest draws that have to be auditable, before-and-after screenshots, or any case where you want to be able to demonstrate that the order was not hand-picked.
Leave the seed blank when you want a genuinely random one-off shuffle. Every click of Shuffle uses a fresh random seed and the output changes every time.
The generator is mulberry32, a small fast pseudo-random number generator. It produces statistically uniform results and is fast enough that even shuffling tens of thousands of lines is instantaneous.
Shuffle vs scramble vs sort: which one do you want
People often type "shuffle" when they mean "scramble" and vice versa. Quick disambiguation:
Shuffle
Rearranges items (lines, words, or paragraphs) while keeping each item intact. The output contains the same items as the input but in a random order. Use the shuffler on this page.
Scramble
Rearranges letters inside each word. The order of the words is preserved but the letters within each word are randomized. Use the text scrambler for that.
Sort
Arranges items in a deterministic order (A-Z or Z-A, by string or by number). The opposite of shuffle. Use the alphabetical order sorter.
Common shuffle problems and how to fix them
The output looks the same as the input
Two likely causes. (1) Your input has only one item or only a few duplicate items, so any "shuffle" looks identical. (2) You locked a seed and the seeded shuffle happens to produce an order close to the input. Click Re-shuffle and the seed is regenerated to a new random value.
Blank lines are messing up my output
Turn on Skip blank lines in the sidebar (it is on by default). Blank lines in the input are removed before the shuffle, so the output is a clean run of non-empty items.
I want to shuffle a comma-separated list, not a line list
Switch the mode to Words. The shuffler splits on whitespace and shuffles tokens. If your list is comma-only with no spaces, convert it first using the column-to-comma converter.
Reproducibility: how to verify a shuffle later
If you need to be able to prove later that a shuffle was not rigged, do this:
- Record the input exactly as you pasted it (whitespace and all).
- Record the seed you typed into the seed field.
- Record the settings: shuffle mode, unique-only toggle, blank-skipping, trim.
Anyone with those three pieces can paste the input, type the same seed, set the same options, and confirm the output matches yours. The shuffler uses deterministic pseudo-random generation (mulberry32 seeded with a hash of the seed string), so the result is fully reproducible.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a shuffler and a scrambler?
A shuffler rearranges items (lines, words, or paragraphs) while keeping each item intact: a shuffled grocery list is the same items in a random order. A scrambler rearranges letters inside each word, so shuffle becomes hsuflfe. Use the shuffler on this page for list-level randomization and the text scrambler for letter-level randomization.
How does the seed work?
The seed is a short string that tells the random generator where to start. Same input plus same seed always produces the same shuffle. Leave the seed blank and every click generates a fresh random order. Type anything in (a word, a date, a number) to lock the result so you can reproduce it later.
Is the shuffle truly random?
It is pseudo-random, which is the same level of randomness used by most programming languages, games, and online tools. The algorithm (mulberry32 seeded by Math.random() when no seed is given) produces statistically uniform results. For cryptographic purposes you would want crypto.getRandomValues, but for any non-security use the output is indistinguishable from true randomness.
Does my text leave the browser?
No. The shuffler runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your input, the seed, and the output are never sent to our servers and are not logged.
Can I shuffle and dedupe at the same time?
Yes. Turn on the Drop duplicates first toggle in the sidebar. Duplicates are removed before the shuffle, so the output is a unique-only random order. Duplicate detection is exact-string-match after trimming.
Why does the same seed give a different result on another tool?
Different tools implement different random number generators. A seed is just a starting point, but the algorithm that turns the seed into a sequence varies (Mersenne Twister, mulberry32, LCG, etc.). For cross-tool reproducibility, do the shuffle once and record the output, not the seed.
Is there a limit on input size?
No hard cap. The shuffler comfortably handles tens of thousands of lines in modern browsers. Fisher-Yates is O(n), so even very large inputs shuffle in a fraction of a second.
What if I want to keep the first or last item in place?
The current tool shuffles all items uniformly. To pin an item, remove it from the input before shuffling and paste it back into the output at the position you want.
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