Syllables API

Quick start

# Count the syllables in "hello"
curl "https://fixie.tools/api/syllables?word=hello"

Response:

{
  "word": "hello",
  "syllable_count": 2,
  "syllables": ["hel", "lo"],
  "stress": [1, 0],
  "ipa": "/həˈloʊ/",
  "language": "en",
  "source": "cmu"
}

Endpoints

{
  "words": ["hello", "world", "syllable"],
  "lang": "en"
}

Examples

# Single word
curl "https://fixie.tools/api/syllables?word=internationalization"

# Spanish
curl "https://fixie.tools/api/syllables?word=biblioteca&lang=es"

# Batch
curl -X POST "https://fixie.tools/api/syllables/batch" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"words": ["hello", "world"], "lang": "en"}'

// Single word
const res = await fetch(
  "https://fixie.tools/api/syllables?word=hello"
);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data.syllable_count); // 2

// Batch
const batch = await fetch("https://fixie.tools/api/syllables/batch", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    words: ["hello", "world", "syllable"],
    lang: "en"
  })
}).then(r => r.json());

import httpx

# Single word
r = httpx.get(
    "https://fixie.tools/api/syllables",
    params={"word": "hello"},
)
print(r.json()["syllable_count"])  # 2

# Batch
r = httpx.post(
    "https://fixie.tools/api/syllables/batch",
    json={"words": ["hello", "world"], "lang": "en"},
)
for item in r.json()["results"]:
    print(item["word"], item["syllable_count"])

Status codes

Notes & limits

• No authentication. No keys, no headers, no signup. CORS is open — call it from any browser origin.
• No SLA. This is a free service; we don't guarantee uptime. If you need durable infrastructure, host your own instance.
• English uses the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary — stress and IPA fields are filled in. The source field reports "cmu" for dictionary hits and "heuristic" for fallback.
• Other languages use phonological heuristics — vowel-group counting with diphthong and silent-letter rules. Accuracy is roughly 85–90% on common words; stress and ipa are not provided.
• No PII logging. We only record aggregate counts (mode, language, count bucket) for capacity planning.