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WordFrequency[text,word]

gives the frequency of word in text.

WordFrequency[text,{word1,word2,…}]

gives an association of the frequencies of each of the wordi.

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Basic Uses  
Case Variants  
Options  
IgnoreCase  
Possible Issues  
Neat Examples  
See Also
Related Guides
Related Workflows
History
Cite this Page

WordFrequency

WordFrequency[text,word]

gives the frequency of word in text.

WordFrequency[text,{word1,word2,…}]

gives an association of the frequencies of each of the wordi.

Details and Options

  • WordFrequency[text,word] gives the number of occurrences of word divided by the total number of words in text.
  • In WordFrequency[text,word], word can be a multiword string containing spaces. For an n-gram string, the result is divided by the total number of n-grams in text.
  • WordFrequency[text,word1|word2|…] gives the total frequency of all the wordi.
  • WordFrequency[{text1,text2,…},word] gives a list of frequencies in each of the texti.
  • Possible options include:
  • IgnoreCase Falsewhether to ignore letter casing
  • WordFrequency[text,word,"CaseVariants"] gives an association that includes frequencies of all variants of upper and lower case.

Examples

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Basic Examples  (2)

Find the frequency of the word "the" in a string:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["the cat in the hat", "the"]

Find the frequencies for a list of words:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["the cat in the hat", {"the", "cat", "hat"}]

Scope  (7)

Basic Uses  (4)

Find the frequency of "had" in a given string:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher", "had"]

For a list of words, an association of frequencies will be returned:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher", { "had", "the", "on"}]

When using alternatives, the total frequency for the matching pattern will be returned:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher", "the" | "on"]

If multiple alternatives are specified, a frequency will be given for each:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher", {"the" | "on", "had had" | "on the"}, IgnoreCase -> True]

Case Variants  (3)

A word can have many lower- and uppercase variants:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["That that is, is that THAT is. Not is not. Is that it? It is", "that", "CaseVariants"]

For multiword inputs, case variants will be returned for each word present:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["That that is, is that THAT is. Not is not. Is that it? It is", {"that", "it"}, "CaseVariants"]

Alternatively, an explicit list of case-sensitive words can be provided:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["That that is, is that THAT is. Not is not. Is that it? It is", {"that", "That", "THAT", "it", "It"}]

Multiple words with "CaseVariants" will be returned as lists:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["That that is, is that THAT is. Not is not. Is that it? It is", {"that" | "not", "is is" | "that that"}, "CaseVariants"]

Options  (1)

IgnoreCase  (1)

By default, frequencies account for only those words that match the case of the specified word:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["Buffalo from Buffalo, which buffalo from Buffalo bully, themselves bully buffalo from Buffalo.", "Buffalo"]

With IgnoreCase->True, all variations in case will be counted together:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["Buffalo from Buffalo, which buffalo from Buffalo bully, themselves bully buffalo from Buffalo.", "Buffalo", IgnoreCase -> True]

Possible Issues  (2)

With IgnoreCase->True, the resulting association will omit keys for case-variant duplicates:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency["Sentences should Be split by Words, and words may be split by letters", {"words", "be", "Be", "BE"}, IgnoreCase -> True]

Words that do not appear within the given text will have a frequency of zero:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency[ExampleData[{"Text", "DeclarationOfIndependence"}], "beltalowda"]

Neat Examples  (2)

The frequency of articles in a sample of Alice in Wonderland:

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency[ExampleData[{"Text", "AliceInWonderland"}], {"a", "an", "the"}, "CaseVariants"]
Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency[ExampleData[{"Text", "AliceInWonderland"}], {"a", "an", "the"}, IgnoreCase -> True]

Create a word cloud using the frequencies for the names of the characters in this book:

Wolfram Language code: WordCloud[WordFrequency[ExampleData[{"Text", "AliceInWonderland"}], {"Alice", "Queen", "Rabbit", "Duchess", "King", "Mouse", "Hatter", "Cat", "Dodo", "Caterpillar"}, IgnoreCase -> True]]

The frequency of the word "mission" in the Wikipedia article "Moon":

Wolfram Language code: WordFrequency[WikipediaData["Moon"], "mission", IgnoreCase -> True]
Wolfram Research (2016), WordFrequency, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/WordFrequency.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2016), WordFrequency, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/WordFrequency.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2016. "WordFrequency." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/WordFrequency.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2016). WordFrequency. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/WordFrequency.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_wordfrequency, author="Wolfram Research", title="{WordFrequency}", year="2016", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/WordFrequency.html}", note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2026_wordfrequency, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={WordFrequency}, year={2016}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/WordFrequency.html}, note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}