How do I make a word cloud from text?

Paste the text into the box and the cloud is drawn from its most frequent words straight away. Adjust the stopword list and the minimum count until the words left are the ones that say something, choose the sizing and colors, and download the result as SVG or PNG.

What are stopwords, and should I remove them?

Stopwords are the very common words that carry grammar rather than topic — the, of, and, that. Left in, they fill the cloud and hide everything else, so remove them for almost every purpose. Edit the list when your question needs it: keep not if negation matters, or add the topic word that appears in every sentence.

Why are some words bigger than others?

Size shows frequency: the most frequent word is drawn largest and the rest are scaled to their counts. With square-root sizing, a word used four times as often is twice as tall, so its area grows with the count; with linear sizing it is four times as tall, which makes the top words dominate.

Why do the words move when I click New layout?

The positions come from a numbered layout, and New layout moves to the next number. The words, sizes and counts do not change — only where the spiral starts each word. Note the layout number if you want to recreate a cloud later: the same text, settings and number always give the same picture.

Can I use a word cloud in a research paper?

Yes, as an illustration, labeled and described like any figure — but not as your analysis. Word sizes cannot be read precisely and the cloud loses context, so report the frequencies in a table or the text, and use the cloud only to give readers a quick impression.

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. The counting, the layout and the downloads all happen in your browser, and nothing you paste is sent to a server. That makes the tool safe for interview transcripts and unpublished drafts.

Word Cloud Generator

Paste a speech, an essay or a page of survey answers and get a word cloud of its most frequent words, with common words such as “the” and “of” left out. Choose the colors, the sizing and how many words to show, then download the cloud as SVG or PNG and every word's count as a CSV table. The text never leaves your browser.

Your text

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Paste an essay, a speech, open-ended survey answers or interview notes. The words are counted in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

271 words in the text · 111 counted · 88 different words · 60 in the cloud

Arranging the words…

Layout 1

What to count

Smallest count to include

Most words in the cloud

Treat capitals as the same word (Nation and nation)Count numbers, such as years, as wordsLeave out stopwords (common words such as “the” and “of”)

Stopwords

a, about, above, after, again, against, all, also, am, among, an, and, any, are, as, at, be, because, been, before, being, below, between, both, but, by, can, cannot, could, did, do, does, doing, down, during, each, either, even, ever, every, few, for, from, further, had, has, have, having, he, her, here, hers, herself, him, himself, his, how, however, i, if, in, into, is, it, its, itself, just, less, may, me, might, more, most, much, must, my, myself, neither, no, nor, not, now, of, off, often, on, once, one, only, or, other, others, our, ours, ourselves, out, over, own, per, rather, same, shall, she, should, since, so, some, such, than, that, the, their, theirs, them, themselves, then, there, therefore, these, they, this, those, though, through, thus, to, too, under, until, up, upon, us, very, via, was, we, were, what, when, where, whether, which, while, who, whom, whose, why, will, with, within, without, would, yet, you, your, yours, yourself, don't, doesn't, didn't, isn't, aren't, wasn't, weren't, can't, couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't, won't, that's, there's, they're, you're, i've, i'd, i'll, i'm

Separate words with spaces, commas or new lines. Add any word that dominates your text without saying much — often the topic itself.

How it looks

Word direction

All horizontalSome vertical

Colors

Word size

Area follows the count (square root)Height follows the count (linear)

Title and figure style

Title

APA style figure

Takes the title out of the image and sets the figure number in bold and the title in italics above it — the APA 7 layout. Say in a note what was counted and what was left out.

How to Use the Word Cloud Generator

1. Paste your text. Any length works. The counts under the box update as you type: words in the text, words counted after removing stopwords, different words, and words in the cloud.
2. Decide what to count. Stopwords are on by default; edit the list to add a word that dominates your text without saying much — often the topic itself. Raise Smallest count to include to drop words used only once, and set how many words the cloud shows (up to 200).
3. Choose the look. Pick the word direction, the sizing rule and a palette. New layout rearranges the same words; the sizes and the table stay the same.
4. Download. Save the cloud as SVG or PNG, and the frequency table as CSV — the table lists every counted word, not only the ones in the cloud.

How the Cloud Is Built

Counting. A word is a run of letters or digits; apostrophes and hyphens inside a word keep it whole, so don't and battle-field each count once. Numbers are skipped unless you tick Count numbers. With Treat capitals as the same word on, Nation and nation are one word, shown in whichever spelling the text uses most. Stopwords are matched without regard to capitals. Ties in the ranking go to the word that appears first.

Sizing. The most frequent word is drawn at full size. With Height follows the count (linear), a word used half as often is half as tall — and covers only about a quarter of the area, so linear sizing exaggerates the top words. With Area follows the count (square root), a word's height is in proportion to the square root of its count, so for words of similar length the ink they cover is in proportion to their counts. No word is drawn smaller than a readable minimum. If the words do not all fit, every size shrinks by the same factor, so the proportions hold.

Placement. Words are placed largest first. Each starts at the centre and moves outward along a spiral until it touches nothing already placed, with each word's own measured width and height, so no two words overlap. The spiral's starting angles come from the layout number: the same text and settings always give the same cloud, and New layout simply moves to the next number.

Example: The Gettysburg Address

The box starts with Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (1863), in which the tool counts 271 words. Removing the stopwords leaves 111 of them — 88 different words — and the five most frequent are:

Rank	Word	Count
1	nation	5
2	dedicated	4
3	great	3
4	dead	3
5	people	3

Counted with the tool's default stopword list, capitals folded.

Two things in that table are lessons about every word cloud. Dedicated (4) and dedicate (2) are counted separately, because the tool counts words exactly as written rather than reducing them to a root; together they would outrank nation. And here, which Lincoln used eight times, does not appear at all, because it is on the stopword list. Turn stopwords off and the top of the list becomes that (13), the (11) and we (10) — accurate, and uninformative.

What a Word Cloud Can and Can't Show

It can show which words a text leans on, at a glance — useful to open a presentation, compare two speeches side by side, or spot the vocabulary of a set of open-ended survey answers.
It can't show context. Not effective and effective both add to effective; sarcasm and negation vanish. Read the passages before you interpret a word.
It splits phrases and forms. Civil war becomes civil and war; dedicate and dedicated stay apart. Use the Phrase Frequency Counter for multi-word terms.
It is imprecise. Readers judge the size of words poorly, and long words look more important than short ones used just as often. Color and position carry no meaning at all.
For analysis, use counts. The Word Frequency Counter gives exact counts and percentages, and the Concordance Tool (KWIC) shows every occurrence of a word in its sentence.

If you put a word cloud in a paper, treat it as a figure and say in the note exactly what was counted: the source text, that stopwords were removed, the minimum count and how many words are shown. Many reviewers see word clouds as decoration, so pair one with the frequency table, which is the evidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make a word cloud from text?: Paste the text into the box and the cloud is drawn from its most frequent words straight away. Adjust the stopword list and the minimum count until the words left are the ones that say something, choose the sizing and colors, and download the result as SVG or PNG.
What are stopwords, and should I remove them?: Stopwords are the very common words that carry grammar rather than topic — the, of, and, that. Left in, they fill the cloud and hide everything else, so remove them for almost every purpose. Edit the list when your question needs it: keep not if negation matters, or add the topic word that appears in every sentence.
Why are some words bigger than others?: Size shows frequency: the most frequent word is drawn largest and the rest are scaled to their counts. With square-root sizing, a word used four times as often is twice as tall, so its area grows with the count; with linear sizing it is four times as tall, which makes the top words dominate.
Why do the words move when I click New layout?: The positions come from a numbered layout, and New layout moves to the next number. The words, sizes and counts do not change — only where the spiral starts each word. Note the layout number if you want to recreate a cloud later: the same text, settings and number always give the same picture.
Can I use a word cloud in a research paper?: Yes, as an illustration, labeled and described like any figure — but not as your analysis. Word sizes cannot be read precisely and the cloud loses context, so report the frequencies in a table or the text, and use the cloud only to give readers a quick impression.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?: No. The counting, the layout and the downloads all happen in your browser, and nothing you paste is sent to a server. That makes the tool safe for interview transcripts and unpublished drafts.

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