Boneyard Tools

Convert Words to Numbers

Type a cardinal number written in English words and this tool reads it left to right, adding units, tens, hundreds, thousands and millions into a single figure. It quietly tolerates the filler word 'and', hyphenated pairs like 'forty-two', mixed capitalization and extra spaces. The result updates the instant you type, so you can paste a spelled-out amount from a contract or cheque and copy back a clean number.

How to convert words to numbers

  1. Click the 'Number in words' field and type or paste your value, for example 'one hundred and twenty-three'.
  2. Read the digit value that appears immediately in the large result box below.
  3. Adjust the wording if you see an error, which points to the word it could not recognize.
  4. Press the Copy button next to Result to place the number on your clipboard.

Examples

Hyphenated value

forty-two
42

Thousands combined with hundreds

two thousand five hundred
2500

Using 'and' inside hundreds

one hundred and twenty-three
123

Frequently asked questions

How large a number can it handle?

It parses cardinal numbers up to the millions, combining a millions part, a thousands part, hundreds, tens and units. 'One million' returns 1000000. Billions and larger scale words are not currently recognized.

Does it understand 'and' and hyphens?

Yes. The word 'and' is dropped as filler and every hyphen is treated as a space, so 'one hundred and twenty-three' and 'forty-two' both parse cleanly to 123 and 42.

Is it case-sensitive?

No. Everything is lowercased first, and runs of spaces collapse, so 'FORTY Two' and 'forty two' both return 42.

Why does 'nineteen eighty four' give 103 instead of 1984?

The tool adds true cardinal values rather than reading digit groups like a year. It computes nineteen plus eighty plus four, which is 103. For a year say 'one thousand nine hundred eighty four'.

Can it handle decimals, fractions or negatives?

No. It converts whole cardinal numbers only. Words such as 'point', 'half' or 'minus' are not number words, so they trigger an unrecognized-word error rather than a partial result.

What happens with words it does not recognize?

It stops and reports the offending token, for example 'Unrecognized number word: "twlve"', instead of guessing. That makes typos easy to spot and fix.

Does 'a hundred' or a bare 'hundred' work?

A bare 'hundred' returns 100 and 'thousand' returns 1000, because a scale word with nothing before it is treated as one of that unit. The article 'a', however, is not a number word and will raise an error.

Is my input sent anywhere?

No. Parsing happens entirely in your browser with no network request, so amounts from invoices, legal text or cheques stay on your device.

Is this the reverse of spelling a number out?

Yes. It is the inverse of a number-to-words converter, turning written English back into digits. For the opposite direction, use the number to words tool.

Learn more

  • How words are turned into numbers

    A plain-English look at how spelled-out numbers are parsed, why scale words like hundred and thousand matter, and where the logic stops.

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