Sentence Splitter
Paste a paragraph or a whole document and get it back with one sentence per line. The splitter knows that Dr., e.g., U.S. and a decimal such as 3.14 are not the end of a sentence. Free, no sign-up, and your text never leaves your browser.
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How to Use the Sentence Splitter
- Paste your text into the Input text box. The character count beneath it updates as you type.
- Click Split Sentences. The text is rewritten with one sentence per line under One sentence per line.
- Check the cards. Sentences, Input characters and Output characters appear beneath the result.
- Copy the result. Use Copy Result to take the list, for a spreadsheet column, a translation tool or a line-by-line edit.
How a Sentence Is Recognised
A sentence ends at a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark (or a run of them, as in ?!) that is followed by a space and then the start of the next sentence, meaning a capital letter A to Z or a digit. Closing quotation marks and brackets stay with the sentence they finish, and an opening quotation mark or bracket stays with the sentence it begins.
Before splitting, the tool protects the full stops in 20 common abbreviations so they cannot end a sentence: Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms., Prof., St., Jr., Sr., e.g., i.e., vs., cf., Fig., Vol., Ed., pp., U.S., U.K., a.m. and p.m. etc. and No. are handled separately: they end a sentence when a capitalised word follows, and stay attached before a number (No. 5) or a lower-case word. Initials are protected too, so J. K. Rowling and J. Smith are not cut after the letter. Blank lines between paragraphs are kept, with each paragraph split on its own. A full stop between two digits is treated as a decimal point, so 3.14 and version 2.0 survive intact.
A Worked Example
Input
Dr. Smith arrived at 3 p.m. on Friday. The value was 3.14! Was it correct? "Yes," she said. "It was." Costs rose in the U.S. and the U.K. (see Fig. 2).
Output (6 sentences)
Dr. Smith arrived at 3 p.m. on Friday. The value was 3.14! Was it correct? "Yes," she said. "It was." Costs rose in the U.S. and the U.K. (see Fig. 2).
Six sentences come out of 151 characters of input, and the output is also 151 characters, because each line break replaces a space. Not one of the abbreviations or the decimal caused a false break, the quoted speech was divided where the quotation ends, and the final full stop after the bracket stayed attached.
Where It Can Go Wrong
Sentence boundaries are a matter of judgement, and a rule-based splitter can only guess. These are the cases to check by eye:
| In your text | What happens |
|---|---|
| Option A. Option B. | A lone capital followed by a capitalised word is read as an initial, so these stay on one line (Plan B. Then… still splits, because Then is a common sentence opener) |
| Mix it with milk, etc. 5 are enough. | etc. and No. before a number are kept with it, so the sentence is not cut there |
| Capt. Kirk spoke. | An abbreviation that is not on the built-in list, such as Capt., is cut after its full stop |
| …nice. éclair is nice. Ça va. | A lower-case word, or a capital outside A to Z, such as É or Ç, does not start a new sentence |
| Wait... What? | Splits after the ellipsis because a capital follows |
| Line breaks inside a paragraph | A single line break is turned into a space; only a blank line starts a new paragraph |
The tool is designed for English prose. In other languages the abbreviations differ and sentences may start with characters it does not recognise, so treat the result as a first pass.
Which Tool Do You Need?
| If you want… | Use |
|---|---|
| Text broken at sentence ends, one sentence per line | This page |
| Text cut into chunks of a set number of characters or words, for posts and messages | Text Splitter |
| The number of sentences, and their length | Sentence Counter |
| Hard line breaks removed from pasted text | Remove Line Breaks |
| Sentence openings checked for repetition | Sentence Opener Checker |
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I split a paragraph into sentences?
- Paste the paragraph and click Split Sentences. Each sentence moves onto its own line, and the Sentences card gives the count. Copy the result when you are done.
- Does it handle abbreviations like Dr. and e.g.?
- Yes, for a built-in list of 20: Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms., Prof., St., Jr., Sr., e.g., i.e., vs., cf., Fig., Vol., Ed., pp., U.S., U.K., a.m. and p.m. etc. and No. are treated as the end of a sentence when a capitalised word follows. Single-letter initials such as J. K. Rowling are protected. Abbreviations that are not on the list can cause a false split.
- Will it split decimal numbers like 3.14?
- No. A full stop with a digit on each side is treated as a decimal point, so 3.14 and 2.0 stay whole.
- Why were two sentences left on one line?
- A new sentence starts only when the next word begins with a capital letter A to Z or a digit. A lower-case start, a capital with an accent such as É, or a built-in abbreviation such as p.m. or Dr. before the break will keep two sentences together.
- Does it keep my paragraph breaks?
- Yes, blank lines. Each paragraph is split on its own and a blank line is left between paragraphs in the output. A single line break inside a paragraph, and runs of spaces, become one space before splitting.
- How is this different from the Text Splitter?
- This tool breaks text where sentences end. The Text Splitter cuts text into parts of a fixed length, for example 280 characters, at word boundaries, and does not care where sentences end.
- Is my text uploaded?
- No. The splitting runs in your browser and nothing is sent or stored.