What Is a Word Cloud? | Definition, Uses & Examples

Word clouds are a convenient way of turning the key ideas in a piece of writing into an eye-catching graphic. You can make one in seconds with QuillBot’s free word cloud generator, which automatically identifies the most important terms in your text and arranges them into a customizable visual.

Word cloud definition

A word cloud is a graphic, often resembling a cloud, that shows the most frequently used words in a specific text (e.g., an essay or article that you’ve written). You can create word clouds with an online generator, and they’re a great way of quickly producing an attractive visual for a document or presentation.

The more often a word appears in the source text, the larger and more centrally it features in the cloud. Extremely common words that occur in nearly all writing, such as “a,” “the,” and “but,” are typically removed automatically by the word cloud generator.

This is an example of a word cloud for a QuillBot article about the best AI art generators, created with QuillBot’s free word cloud generator:

Word cloud uses

You can use word clouds as an appealing visual or a source of creative inspiration. Below are some common ways to use word clouds created with tools like QuillBot’s free word cloud generator.

Documents and presentations

Generate a word cloud from your essay, report, or article and add it as a visual element to your document or slide deck. Most tools let you adjust the appearance of your cloud—such as the font, color palette, size, and text rotation—so you can match it to your design or branding.

Education and training

Word clouds work well as engaging discussion prompts in classroom and training settings. For example, you can:

• Introduce a new topic: Create a word cloud from a short text that summarizes the subject. Project it and ask students to discuss what they already know based on the most prominent words.
• Review a topic: Show a word cloud that highlights key terms from a unit or reading, and ask students to discuss the three most important things they’ve learned.

Brainstorming

At the start of a brainstorming session, a word cloud can help groups spot recurring themes and spark initial ideas. Whether it’s generated from notes, background research, or survey responses, a word cloud offers a quick visual overview that can kick off discussion and guide the direction of the session.

Frequently asked questions about word clouds

Can I change the words in my word cloud?

Some word cloud generators, like QuillBot’s free word cloud generator, allow you to change the words in your word cloud by excluding and adding particular words in the settings options.

How can I show a word cloud in the classroom?

The easiest way to display a word cloud in the classroom is to download it as an image file and display or project it using your classroom’s screen or video projector. You can insert the image into a presentation slide deck or simply open it with your computer’s default image viewer.

QuillBot’s free word cloud generator lets you download word clouds as PNGs or SVGs, two widely supported file formats.