Phrase Frequency Finder

📝 Phrase Frequency Analyzer

This tool finds repeated phrases in your writing—helping spot overused patterns or common expressions.

  • N-gram size sets how many words to group together:
    • 2 = two-word phrases (e.g., “the boat”)
    • 3 = three-word phrases (e.g., “made their way”)

Paste your text, choose a phrase length, and click Analyze to see the most frequent phrases.

Author Lexicon Phrase Block

Set the phrase length (e.g., 2 for bigrams, 3 for trigrams).

🔁 Alternatives to “A sense of...”

✨ 1. Emotional Perception

“A sense of awe” →

  • “She stood in awe.”
  • “Awe gripped her.”
  • “It was breathtaking.”
  • “She was stunned by the scale of it.”

“A sense of dread” →

  • “Dread coiled in her gut.”
  • “Something felt wrong.”
  • “He couldn’t shake the creeping unease.”

“A sense of joy” →

  • “Joy lit her from within.”
  • “She beamed.”
  • “She laughed without meaning to.”

🧠 2. Cognitive or Intuitive Realization

“A sense of understanding” →

  • “He began to understand.”
  • “Clarity came in a rush.”
  • “The pieces clicked into place.”

“A sense of familiarity” →

  • “It felt familiar.”
  • “Something about it tugged at her memory.”
  • “She’d been here before—somehow.”

👁 3. Environmental or Physical Impressions

“A sense of motion” →

  • “The floor shifted beneath them.”
  • “She swayed with the rhythm of the boat.”
  • “The world tilted slightly.”

“A sense of silence” →

  • “The room was silent.”
  • “The hush was total.”
  • “Even her breath felt loud.”

🛠 Rewrite Strategy:

  1. Drop the abstraction
    Instead of “a sense of urgency”, say “They rushed.” or “She didn’t pause.”
  2. Turn it into action or sensation
    Rather than “a sense of calm washed over him,” try “He exhaled. The noise faded.”
  3. Use body language or internal response
    Swap “a sense of fear” for “Her chest tightened.” or “Goosebumps rose on her arms.”

💡 When “a sense of” is worth keeping:

Sometimes it fits when you're intentionally hovering above the action—giving a reflective, narrator-like summary of atmosphere or emotion:

“There was a sense of something unfinished between them.”

In those rare cases, it adds tone. But if you're close-in with your characters, replace it with lived experience.

🎨 Alternatives to “The weight of”

💭 Emotional / Reflective tone:

  • The burden of
  • The gravity of
  • The pressure of
  • The heaviness of
  • The responsibility of
  • The toll of
  • The ache of
  • The pull of
  • The shadow of
  • The silence of (when the "weight" is metaphorical or unspoken)

🛠 Concrete / Physical tone:

  • The load of
  • The force of
  • The mass of
  • The impact of
  • The density of
  • The strain of
  • The drag of

🗣 More abstract or lyrical:

  • The presence of
  • The echo of
  • The memory of
  • The truth of
  • The cost of
  • The depth of
  • The inevitability of
  • The thread of (if it's something subtle but persistent)

✍️ Example swaps:

  • “The weight of expectation” →
    “The gravity of expectation”
    “The burden of what was expected”
  • “The weight of her words” →
    “The force behind her words”
    “The ache in her words”
  • “The weight of history” →
    “The shadow of history”
    “The pull of the past”