How to Count Sentences in Word

Microsoft Word makes it easy to see how many words, characters, paragraphs, and lines are in a document. But finding the number of sentences in Word is a little less obvious.

Fortunately, there are several ways to count the sentences in a Word document.

The easiest option is to use Word’s Document Stats or Readability Statistics. You can also copy your text into our free Sentence Counter for an instant sentence count and additional sentence statistics.

How to Count Sentences in Microsoft Word

If you have a current version of Microsoft 365, you may be able to find the sentence count through Word’s Document Stats.

Open your document in Microsoft Word.
Select the Home tab.
Select Editor.
Open Document stats.
Wait for Word to analyze the document.
View the document statistics.

The statistics can include the number of sentences in your document along with information such as words per sentence and readability scores.

Unlike Word’s normal Word Count feature, Document Stats provides more detailed information about the structure and readability of your writing.

Can’t Find Document Stats?

The exact steps can vary depending on the version of Microsoft Word you are using.

In some versions of Word, you need to enable Readability Statistics first.

On Windows:

Go to File → Options.
Select Proofing.
Make sure Check grammar with spelling is enabled.
Check Show readability statistics.
Return to your document.
Run Word’s spelling and grammar check.

After the check is completed, Word can display a Readability Statistics window containing statistics about your document, including its sentence count.

If these options aren’t available in your version of Word, there is an easier way.

Use Our Sentence Counter

For a faster way to find out exactly how many sentences are in a Word document, copy the text and paste it into our free Sentence Counter.

The sentence count appears automatically.

You will also see:

Total sentences
Average words per sentence
Median words per sentence
Average characters per sentence
Average sentences per paragraph
Longest sentence
Shortest sentence
Total words and characters

The tool also separates your text into individual sentences and shows the word count and character count for every sentence.

This can be especially useful if you aren’t just trying to find the total number of sentences. For example, you can quickly identify an unusually long sentence or compare sentence lengths throughout an essay, report, article, or other document.

To use it with Microsoft Word:

Open your Word document.
Select the text you want to analyze.
Copy the text.
Open the Sentence Counter.
Paste your text into the text box.

Your sentence count and other statistics will update automatically.

Does Word Count Show the Number of Sentences?

The regular Word Count feature in Microsoft Word does not normally display a sentence count.

Word Count is useful for finding statistics such as:

Words
Characters
Characters without spaces
Paragraphs
Lines

For example, you can open Word Count by clicking the word total in the status bar at the bottom of Word.

However, if you specifically need to know how many sentences are in your document, you will need to use Word’s Document Stats or Readability Statistics instead.

You can also use our Sentence Counter if you want the sentence count without changing any Word settings.

Can You Count Sentences Manually?

You can also count the sentences in a Word document manually.

Look for punctuation that normally ends a sentence:

Periods (.)
Question marks (?)
Exclamation points (!)

However, simply counting these punctuation marks will not always give you an accurate sentence count.

For example, periods can also appear in:

Abbreviations such as Dr. and Mr.
Decimal numbers such as 3.14
Initials
Website addresses
Ellipses

So a document containing 50 periods does not necessarily contain 50 sentences.

Manual counting may work for a very short paragraph, but it becomes slow and error-prone with longer documents.

How to Count Sentences in Part of a Word Document

Sometimes you may only want to count the sentences in one paragraph or section rather than the entire document.

The simplest method is to highlight the section, copy it, and paste it into the Sentence Counter.

The counter will analyze only the text you paste.

This is useful when you want to check:

A single paragraph
One page of an essay
A chapter
An introduction or conclusion
A selected section of a report

You can also see every detected sentence individually, making it easier to analyze the selected section in more detail.

Why Count Sentences in Word?

Knowing the number of sentences in a document can be useful for more than simply meeting an assignment requirement.

For example, sentence count can help you evaluate the average length of your sentences.

A 500-word document containing 20 sentences averages about 25 words per sentence, while a 500-word document containing 40 sentences averages about 12.5 words per sentence.

Neither is automatically better. Sentence length depends on your audience, subject, and writing style.

Looking at your sentence count together with your average words per sentence, longest sentence, shortest sentence, and paragraph structure can give you a better picture of how your writing is organized.

Word Count vs. Sentence Count

Word count and sentence count measure different aspects of a document.

Word count tells you how many words you have written.

Sentence count tells you how those words are divided into complete sentences.

For example:

The dog ran outside. It started raining. The dog quickly came back inside.

This text contains 13 words and 3 sentences.

If you need to check only the number of words in a document, you can use our Word Counter.

If you want to analyze individual sentences and sentence length, use the Sentence Counter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Microsoft Word have a sentence counter?

Microsoft Word can display sentence statistics through its Document Stats or Readability Statistics features. The standard Word Count window does not normally show the number of sentences.

How do I find the sentence count in Word?

In supported versions of Microsoft 365, go to Home → Editor → Document stats. Other versions of Word may require you to enable Show readability statistics in Word’s Proofing settings and then run a spelling and grammar check.

What is the easiest way to count sentences in Word?

Copy your Word document or the section you want to analyze and paste it into our free Sentence Counter. The number of sentences appears automatically.

Can I count sentences in only one paragraph?

Yes. Copy only the paragraph you want to check and paste it into the Sentence Counter. It will calculate the sentence count and sentence-length statistics for that paragraph.

Does Word Count include sentences?

Word’s standard Word Count feature displays statistics such as words, characters, paragraphs, and lines, but it does not normally display sentence count. Sentence information is available through Word’s more detailed document or readability statistics.

Conclusion

Microsoft Word can count the sentences in a document, but the feature isn’t as visible as its standard Word Count tool.

In current versions of Microsoft 365, look under Home → Editor → Document stats. In some other versions, you may need to enable Readability Statistics through Word’s Proofing settings.

If you just want a quick sentence count—or want more information about the sentences in your document—copy your text into our free Sentence Counter.

It will instantly show your total sentences, average sentence length, median sentence length, longest and shortest sentences, and a breakdown of every sentence in your text.