Character frequency analysis reveals the distribution of letters and symbols in text. In English, 'e' is the most common letter (~13%), followed by 't' (~9%) and 'a' (~8%). This knowledge is fundamental to cryptography (breaking substitution ciphers), linguistics, data compression, and text analysis.
How to Use
Paste text to analyze:
- Frequency table: Count and percentage per character
- Sort: By frequency (most common first) or alphabetically
- Filter: Include/exclude spaces, punctuation, numbers
English Letter Frequency
The most common letters in English text: E (12.7%), T (9.1%), A (8.2%), O (7.5%), I (7.0%), N (6.7%), S (6.3%), H (6.1%), R (6.0%). The least common: Z (0.07%), Q (0.10%), X (0.15%).
Applications
- Cryptanalysis: Breaking substitution ciphers by matching frequency patterns
- Linguistics: Comparing language characteristics
- Compression: Huffman coding uses frequency for optimal encoding
- Password analysis: Detecting patterns in password choices
Step-by-Step Instructions
- 1Paste or type your text.
- 2View the character frequency table.
- 3Toggle case sensitivity as needed.
- 4Filter whitespace or punctuation.
- 5Sort by frequency or alphabetically.