This tool gives an accurate word count for Hindi (Devanagari) text, handling the punctuation and conjunct rules that trip up generic counters. It also reports sentences, characters and lines so you can check writing against length limits.
How it works
The text is normalised by treating the Devanagari danda (।, U+0964) and double danda (॥, U+0965) as separators, since they end clauses and sentences rather than belonging to a word. The text is then split on whitespace. Each resulting token is counted as a word only if it contains at least one letter or digit, so trailing punctuation or symbols do not inflate the total. Virama conjuncts are written without an internal space, so they remain inside a single token and are never miscounted.
Example
The sentence:
यह एक उदाहरण वाक्य है।contains the tokens यह, एक, उदाहरण, वाक्य and है (the danda attaches to है as a sentence terminator) — a total of 5 words and 1 sentence.
Why Hindi needs a specialised word counter
Generic word counters built for English split on spaces and call it done. Hindi Devanagari writing introduces several rules that break naive approaches:
The Devanagari danda
Hindi sentences traditionally end with a danda (।) rather than a period. When a danda attaches directly to the last word without a space — which is common in printed and digital text — a counter that only splits on whitespace will merge the danda into the final word token. This tool detects the danda, treats it as a sentence boundary, and excludes it from the word token.
Virama conjunct consonants
Hindi frequently joins consonants using the virama (halant, ् U+094D), which
creates conjunct forms written as a single graphical unit with no space. For example,
क्या (kya), स्त्री (stree), and क्षमा (kshama) each contain consonant clusters but
are single words. Because there is no internal space, they are correctly counted as
one word each. A counter must not attempt to split at virama characters.
Numerals and mixed script
Hindi text often contains Devanagari numerals (०१२३…, U+0966–U+096F) alongside Arabic numerals, and sometimes English words written in Devanagari or the Roman alphabet. The counter treats any token containing a letter or digit — in any of these forms — as a valid word, handling naturally mixed passages.
Practical guidance for writers and editors
- Academic word limits: Hindi assignments and articles are often counted in words (शब्द). Use this counter to verify before submission.
- Translation verification: When translating between Hindi and English, the word counts naturally differ — Hindi is typically more compact, so a 300-word English passage may become 220–250 Hindi words.
- Social media character limits: Platforms like Twitter/X count characters, not words. The character count shown here (with and without spaces) is the figure that matters for platform limits.
- Reading time: A rough estimate for Hindi reading speed is 150–200 words per minute for an adult native reader, so divide your word count by 175 for an approximate read time.
Notes
Sentence detection uses the danda, double danda and the ASCII ., ! and ?
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