Lorem Ipsum Generator

How to use the Lorem ipsum generator

1. Generate — paragraphs for body text, sentences for a caption or a card, an exact number of words for a field with a word limit, or list items for menus and bullet points. The standard paragraph gives the classic 69-word passage that starts every Lorem ipsum sample.
2. How many — up to 100 paragraphs, 500 sentences, 10,000 words or 200 list items.
3. Format — plain text (paragraphs separated by a blank line, list items with a bullet) or HTML: each paragraph wrapped in <p>, list items in <ul> and <li>, ready to paste into a web page, a template or a code editor.
4. Start with “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet…” — on by default, so the text is recognizable as placeholder at a glance. Switch it off for text that starts at random.

Press Copy next to the result and paste it wherever you need it. The counts under the text (words, characters with and without spaces, sentences) help you fill a layout to a given length. Each press of Generate draws new text; everything happens in your browser.

What the generator writes

All words come from the standard Lorem ipsum paragraph — its 63 different words, from lorem and ipsum to consectetur and laborum — so the result looks like the text designers have used for decades, not like random Latin. A sentence has 5 to 15 words (and a comma in about half of the longer ones), a paragraph 4 to 8 sentences, so paragraphs vary between 20 and 120 words and average about 60. Three paragraphs are therefore roughly 180 words. A list item has 3 to 8 words. In Words mode you get exactly the number you asked for, grouped into sentences.

For example, 4 list items as HTML (with the Lorem ipsum start) came out like this — every press gives different items:

<ul>
  <li>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</li>
  <li>Sit est fugiat</li>
  <li>Exercitation aliquip et duis nulla dolore</li>
  <li>Sint commodo incididunt</li>
</ul>

The standard Lorem ipsum passage

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

This 69-word paragraph is the version almost everyone uses. Its words look like Latin, but most sentences make no sense: words are cut short, joined and rearranged. “Lorem” isn’t a Latin word at all — it is the end of dolorem (“pain”).

Where Lorem ipsum comes from

The text is a scrambled extract from De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On the Ends of Good and Evil”), a philosophical work by Marcus Tullius Cicero written in 45 BC. The fragments come from sections 32 and 33 of Book I, where Cicero sets out the Epicurean view of pleasure and pain. Its best-known line, Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, roughly means “nor is there anyone who loves pain itself because it is pain”.

• Who found the source. Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar at Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia, traced the text to Cicero by looking up consectetur, a word that is rare in classical Latin. He made it widely known in a 1994 letter to the design magazine Before & After, whose editor had written that the text meant nothing.
• The “since the 1500s” story. Many websites repeat that an unknown printer scrambled the text in the 16th century. There is no evidence for this: the date came from McClintock’s letter, and he has since said it was a guess.
• Where the scramble probably happened. The French sociologist Philippe Cibois noticed that in the 1914 Loeb Classical Library edition of De finibus (Latin text with H. Rackham’s English translation), the Latin breaks off at the bottom of page 34 with qui do- and continues on page 36 with lorem ipsum — exactly how the dummy text begins.
• How it spread. The version used today appeared in 1966 on Letraset dry-transfer sheets, which graphic designers rubbed onto layouts to show type. Computers took it over with desktop publishing; word processors and web tools still offer it.

Why scrambled Latin? Placeholder text should look like real text — similar word lengths, letters and rhythm — without inviting people to read it, so that a layout is judged on its design rather than its words. Readable dummy text distracts; repeated “text text text” looks nothing like a real paragraph.

The original passage and its translation

The letters that survive in Lorem ipsum are in bold — the standard text cuts, joins and changes words, so the match is loose. Latin text and translation as printed in the 1914 Loeb edition; H. Rackham’s translation (1914) is in the public domain.

Cicero, De finibus I.32–33

[32] Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

[33] At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio cumque nihil impedit quo minus id quod maxime placeat facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat.

English translation by H. Rackham (1914)

[32] But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of reprobating pleasure and extolling pain arose. To do so, I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?

[33] On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of the pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains.

A few words of the standard text, such as cillum, don’t come from this passage at all.

Tips for using placeholder text

• Search before you publish. Forgotten Lorem ipsum on live websites is common. Before launch, search your pages or templates for “lorem” and “ipsum”.
• Use real text for other languages. German or Finnish words run longer than these Latin ones, and Chinese or Japanese text has no spaces at all. To test a layout for another language, use real sample text in that language.
• Match the length of the real text. If a product description will be about 30 words, test the card with 30 words, not three paragraphs. Use Words mode for exact lengths and check them with the word counter.
• Screen readers read Lorem ipsum aloud as nonsense. Fine in a mockup, but replace it before accessibility testing.

Frequently asked questions

Last updated: October 15, 2026