Jargon Detection and Short-Word Substitutes

Long words are the fastest way to raise a readability grade, and the easiest thing to fix. This post shows how much they cost, how to find them, and what to use instead.

Every score below comes from this site's calculator, run on 9 October 2026.

Why long words cost so much

The Flesch-Kincaid formula is:

Grade = 0.39 × (words per sentence) + 11.8 × (syllables per word) − 15.59

The second term does most of the work. Each extra syllable adds 11.8 divided by the number of words in the text. Swap "utilize" (three syllables) for "use" (one) in a 20-word passage, and the grade falls by about 1.2.

Two scored rewrites

Example 1

To facilitate your understanding of procedural requirements, we have compiled a comprehensive informational document.

This is one 14-word sentence. It scores grade 19.4.

To help you understand what is needed, we put together a full fact sheet.

Same length, 14 words. It scores grade 5.9. Nearly half the syllables are gone.

Example 2

Prior to the commencement of treatment, patients are required to provide documentation of their current medications. Failure to provide this documentation may result in the postponement of the procedure.

Grade 12.4.

Before treatment starts, bring a list of the medicines you take now. If you do not bring the list, we may have to move your visit to a later date.

Grade 4.4. The rewrite is one word longer. Short words did all the work.

These are sample sentences we wrote for this post, not text from a real organisation.

How to find the words

Look for words of three or more syllables. Gunning Fog and SMOG count exactly those. This site's calculator counts them for the formulas and underlines words of four or more syllables in the highlighted text, so the heaviest ones stand out.

Not every long word is jargon. "Medicine" and "family" are long and plain. Look for long words that have an everyday equivalent.

Shorter substitutes

Instead of	Syllables	Try	Syllables
utilize	3	use	1
facilitate	4	help	1
demonstrate	3	show	1
terminate	3	end	1
commence	2	start	1
purchase	2	buy	1
assistance	3	help	1
additional	4	more	1
in order to	4	to	1
approximately	5	about	2
sufficient	3	enough	2
prior to	3	before	2

Not every substitute has one syllable. "About", "enough" and "before" have two. They are still shorter and more familiar than the words they replace.

When not to swap

Some terms carry an exact meaning. In drug safety, an adverse event is a problem that happens while someone uses a medical product, whether or not the product caused it. "Side effect" says something narrower. Swapping one for the other changes the meaning.

When a term like that matters:

• Keep the term.
• Define it once, in plain words, the first time it appears.
• Shorten the words around it instead.

A rewrite can also change meaning by accident. Have the person who owns the text check each change, especially in legal and medical documents.

A simple routine

1. Paste the text into the readability checker and note the grade.
2. Read the underlined words. Mark the ones with a plain equivalent.
3. Swap them, then re-score.
4. Check the long sentences next. Our guide on lowering sentence length covers that step.

How long this takes depends on the document. Time yourself on one page before you plan a whole manual.

How we checked

Syllable counts in the table are dictionary counts. Scores come from this site's calculator. We have no data showing that shorter words change trust, conversions or search rankings, so this post makes no claim about them.