Get a Lexile Text Measure
The Lexile ® measure of text is determined using the Lexile Analyzer ®, a software program that evaluates the reading demand—or readability—of books, articles and other materials. The Lexile Analyzer ® measures the complexity of the text by breaking down the entire piece and studying its characteristics, such as sentence length and word frequency, which represent the syntactic and semantic challenges that the text presents to a reader. The outcome is the text complexity, expressed as a Lexile ® measure, along with information on the word count, mean sentence length and mean log frequency.
Generally, longer sentences and words of lower frequency lead to higher Lexile ® measures; shorter sentences and words of higher frequency lead to lower Lexile ® measures. Texts such as lists, recipes, poetry and song lyrics are not analyzed because they lack conventional punctuation.
Access to the Lexile Analyzer ® is free for registered users. Initially, you will have a 1000-word limit; however, you can request access to the Professional Lexile Analyzer® to measure longer pieces of text. Please submit your request through the My Access section of your Profile. Educators can upgrade for free. Business partners and researchers should contact us for more information.